Paul & all-- My experience is that the number of banded Ohio trumpeters is approaching zero. It certainly is getting harder to find intact bands on Ohio birds. The Ohio swan project lasted from 1996-2006, at which time they stopped routinely banding swans and called it a success. They keep track of swan numbers (some release sites just didn't work out, and a surprising number of swans are killed by various numbskull Nimrods every year). It takes a lot of effort to wade out into a marsh then fight off the adults while you catch and band young birds. Several other projects in nearby states have abandoned bands, too, and others have adopted new protocols, so they have several colors of license plates out there. Patuxent is very good at getting you information on swan bands you report to them, but they won't send you a list of the protocols: they trade information, but don't give it away. If you see a band (I think the Ohio ones are black alphanumerics on yellow; please correct here if I'm wrong) you can probably ID Ohio birds yourself, but Patuxent and ODOW would like to know. But there fewer and fewer of them out there. There are also some tundra swans being banded in the Arctic, too, so don't rely on all banded birds being trumpeters. A lot of this is on the ODOW web site; if you want to ask a question however you'll find you'll have to go through the Director rather than just ask one of the employees these days. Bill Whan Columbus On 2/21/2012 10:02 AM, Paul Dubuc wrote: > Hello, All: > > A common rule of thumb I've heard numerous times in Ohio is that as the > size of a flock of Trumpeter Swans grows, the probability that NONE of the > birds will have neck bands rapidly approaches zero. I've never heard > anyone suggest that this a definitive distinction (and it certainly is > useless with singletons or very small groups), but wondered if one of the > better informed Ohio Listers might be able to address whether this is still > a useful data point when flocks of native swans are observed. > > Bird well, > > Paul ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]