Black Swan records

In the Western Palearctic Black Swan is only considered acceptable in the Netherlands, where its population is considered self-supporting. All other records committees have so far deemed it not acceptable, with most records clearly relating to escapes or released birds. Looking at AERC lists on BUBO Listing though, 47 people have seen Black Swan and very few of these relate to Netherlands birds!

We would be grateful if you could remove "dodgy" Black Swans from any lists that you have them on!

The same applies for various other wildfowl species, including Bar-headed Goose, Ross's Goose, Wood Duck (Azores and Iceland only please!) etc.

It is clear that several people like to include birds they have seen even where they are clearly not officially countable. One option we have considered is to allow users to enter species but flag them as "to be excluded". This would mean that these species would be viewable on your own list but would not be included in your overall total. This facility could be used in various ways, e.g. escapes, heard onlys, rejected records. The records would also be hidden when others view your lists, and from the targets list etc.

We would welcome feedback on this idea.

Hi Mike

Guilty as charged with Ross's Goose. I figure that the birds I've seen in Norfolk (two singles both with Pink-feet) and Scotland, with Barnacles, are likely to have the same origin as the acceptable birds in the Netherlands (usually with Barnacles, I think). I'm also pretty happy, given the large World population of Ross's Goose that it's a likely vagrant.

I think the feral species are a different matter and you wouldn't want to tick them unless on category C or equivalent of the place you'd seen them.

I started to get quite excited about a Wood Duck in I saw in Madeira in late November 2006, but when I got better views of it it had a metal ring...

all the best

John

Likewise, I have seen Ross's Goose with Pinkfeet in Norfolk in winter, i am happy this could well have been a wild bird.