Although yes, I do know this issue was posted locally on the NF, yet it still has many repercussions to birders throughout NYS therefore I am posting. If you wish to eradicate Mute Swan I am sorry. rk
North Fork LI NY: I went looking for the reported Snowy at the Mattituck Inlet Breakwater today but although I looked along the Beach, east & west and patrolled the DEC conservation and boat ramp area I could not find it. I’ll try again as once the species shows up it can be persistent. The predominant waterfowl there today was Long-tailed Duck. It was good to hear their call once again this season. After some coffee and a late breakfast in Mattituck I went to Laurel Lake. There were plentiful numbers of Ring-necked Duck, Ruddy Duck and American Coot. Also seen were one Great Blue Heron, one Pied Billed Grebe and a Gadwall. As an aside: There were two Mute Swan in the Laurel Lake compared to hundreds of Canada Geese there today. Why does the NYS-DEC seem so preoccupied with extirpating all the Mute Swan and is doing next to nothing in addressing the vast numbers of Canada Geese in NYS. The geese cause so much damage to wetlands and to water quality due to the hugh amount of poop they produce. Loading nitrogen into our bays and wetlands is only part of the problem. Maneuvering about many parking lots and commercial businesses with grass without encountering poop is problematic. I understand from DEC records that the Mute Swan population in NYS is somewhere between 2800 and 3500. Please correct me if I am wrong. As I was looking through my scope this morning at Laurel Lake a fellow came along walking his dog and asked me what I was looking at. I gave him a brief description of the species there and he said to me. “Why do they want to kill all the swans? He continued to say “I love the Swans, they are so beautiful and my kids love to see them as well”. I wondered how an average person had come to know about this issue. My point here is that I believe the Mute Swan, although yes it is an ‘invasive species’, does more good than harm as it helps connect people with a world around them they did not know before. The Swans in effect connect people to nature and help create a culture of conservation that helps us all. As for Canada Geese I have nothing against them; however, to put thing into perspective when I do the DEC Winter Waterfowl Census in January I frequently find about 3,000 Canada Geese in the fields along Oregon Road Mattituck NY alone. Imagine how many statewide. In my opinion the DEC needs to get their priorities in the correct order and concern themselves with a gradual reduction in the population of Canada Geese. Whether it be through addling of eggs or a more lenient view when it comes to hunting and or donation of the take to food banks something must be done. rk -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "North Fork Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout <https://groups.google.com/d/optout>. -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
