robert lane <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Some additional thoughts. Trumpeter Swan is apparently in a class all
it's own. If you look in the most recent "Birds Of Ohio Checklist" by
the Ohio Division Of Wildlife (March 2012), and "The Ohio Records
Committee Annotated Checklist Of Birds Of Ohio" (October 2008), it
appears that Trumpeter Swan is the only bird specie listed in these two
publications, other than extirpated or extinct species, that is not
countable in Ohio.


Trumpeter Swan is an extirpated species, but it was recently reintroduced. It is these reintroduced birds and their descendents that we typically encounter today. Its situation is very much like that of Whooping Crane. Both are on the Ohio state list based on historic records that predate their extirpation. Both can be encountered today: Trumpeters as part of the reintroduced population, and Whoopers as off-course migrants from the reintroduced and heavily-managed Floridapopulation. Neither are countable under ABA rules, since they are not part of natural populations and hence are not defined as "wild" birds. If one were to see a Trumpeter or Whooper in Ohio and somehow know that it derived from a wild western population, then one could legitimatelycount it.


It can be argued that the Ohio Trumpeters are an established population that should be countable. However, by ABA custom, the determination that an introduced species has become established within a state is made by the state's bird records committee. The OBRC has never issued a ruling on Trumpeters, presumably because no one has submitted the data supporting the claim. Compiling the data needed to prove that a population is increasing and expanding its range is not trivial. And one should bear in mind that at one time the introduced Gray Partridge was common in western Ohio before failing to become truly established.


Paul Gardner
Columbus, OH




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