This Week in Review (June 8-14, 2003):

Current News Items: Additions this week: 4. Cumulative to date: 159. Another slow week, with obituaries for two Canadian birds, plus news that the Mute Swan has been designated "Invader of the Month" in Maryland. Other Online Documents: Additions this week: 0. Cumulative to date: 47 items from 26 sources.

Current News Articles (2):

Mute Swans Designated "Invader of the Month" for June (Maryland Invasive Species Council - 06/12/03): Although dated 06/06/03, today was the frst time that I noted this arcticle on the Maryland Invasive Species Council's web site.
http://www.mdinvasivesp.org/invader_of_the_month.html

Same-Sex Mate Mourns Last Royal Swan (Ottawa [Ontario] Citizen - 06/12/03): The article mourns the death of "the last living royal swan of the dozen donated by the Queen in 1967," which was found dead yesterday near the prime ministers residence.
http://www.canada.com/ottawa/story.asp?id=3FD391DC-B7FC-43F5-BF0C-48349B38ABC3

Current News Articles (1):

Much-Loved Swan Dies (Halifax [Nova Scotia] Daily News - 06/11/03): Paul Fraser writes thia obituary for Snowball, the 11-year-old Mute Swan known as "Bedford's most famous feathered fowl," who was found dead yesterday in the Bedford Basin.
http://www.canada.com/halifax/dailynews/story.asp?id=9421285F-4103-4A10-9955-0D079A770DB1

Current News Articles (1):

Mute Swans Designated June's 'Invader of the Month' (Easton [Maryland] Star-Democrat - 06/08/03): This 9-paragraph article notes that the Mute Swan has been designated "Invader of the Month" by the Maryland Invasive Species Council, but that information has not yet been posted on that organization's web site.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=8255611&BRD=2101&PAG=461&dept_id=392208&rfi=6

This Week in Review (June 1-7, 2003):

Current News Items: Additions this week: 4. Cumulative to date: 155. This was the slowest news week for Mute Swans since this project was started on 04/20/03. The best of the news items was a well-researched article published by National Geographic News. Other Online Documents: Additions this week: 0. Cumulative to date: 47 items from 26 sources.

Current News Articles (1):

'A Little Sewage Can Be Good For Everyone' (Easton [Maryland] Star-Democrat - 06/06/03): In the third paragraph of his Up the Creek column, Keith Walters offers some wildly improbable figures on the reproductive potential of Mute Swans.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=8237186&BRD=2101&PAG=461&dept_id=392208&rfi=6

Current News Articles (1):

Mute Swans Spark Loud Debate in Chesapeake Bay (National Geographic News - 06/05/03): This article by Kim O'Connell focuses on the Mute Swan Management Plan of the Maryland DNR and the lawsuit filed by the Fund for Animals that has halted plans to shoot up to 1,500 birds this summer. Includes brief quote from Fund president Michael Markarian and extensive quotes from Maryland DNR associate director Jonathan McKnight. Also provides good background information on the impacts of Mute Swans on the environment and the need for population control.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/06/0605_030605_muteswan.html

Current News Articles (1):

Scenic Wildlife or Stately Pest? (Baltimore [Maryland] Sun - 06/04/03): A lengthy story featuring extensive interviews with two Maryland residents on different sides of the Mute Swan debate, one an admirer of the bird and the other a critic.
http://www.sunspot.net/bal-te.md.swan04jun04,0,640084.story?coll=bal-home-headlines

Current News Articles (1):

Mute Swan Debate Rips Up Emails Like SAVs (Easton [Maryland] Star-Democrat - 06/01/03): After being inundated by emails for the last few weeks from people on both sides of the Mute Swan fracas, Up the Creek columnist Keith Walters remains convinced that “The critters are the best machine on this earth for converting submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) into a higher fecal coliform count in the [Chesapeake] Bay, and less grass for crabs and fish to hide in while growing up.”
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=8184897&BRD=2101&PAG=461&dept_id=392208&rfi=6

This Week in Review (May 25-31, 2003):

Current News Items: Additions this week: 13. Cumulative to date: 151. Older Online Documents: Additions this week: 0. Cumulative to date: 47 items from 26 sources.

Current News Articles (2):

Ill-Tempered Swan Tamed (Milford [Massachusetts] Daily News- 05/31/03): An exact duplicate of the Associated Press story noted below.
http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/local_regional/ap_swan05312003.htm

Ill-Tempered Swan Tamed (Framingham [Massachusetts] MetroWest Daily News - 05/31/03): According to this story attributed to the Associated Press, officials with the Humane Society of the United States’ Cape Wildlife Center in Barnstable believe that efforts to tame the overly aggressive behavior of a territorial Mute Swan (nicknamed Genghis Swan by local residents) on the Eel River in Plymouth using a repellent, methyl anthranilate, have been successful. According to HSUS spokesman John Hadidian, “he has not threatened canoes or kayaks the last two times we’ve put him to the test.”
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/local_regional/ap_swan05312003.htm

Current News Article (1):

It's Open Season in Spawning Rivers (Easton [Maryland] Star-Democrat - 05/30/03 [NOTE: scroll to middle of page for remarks on Mute Swan): Keith Walter's Up the Creek column includes a slight variation of the Mute Swan culinary remarks from his column of 05/28/03.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=8169047&BRD=2101&PAG=461&dept_id=392208&rfi=6

Current News Articles (2):

Activist Sues to Stop Mute Swan Kill (Annapolis [Maryland] Capital - 05/29/03): An exact copy of the Associated Press article first published by Newsday.com on 05/28/03.
http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/live/05_29-02/GOV

Activist Files Suite to Halt Shooting of Mute Swans (Easton [Maryland] Star-Democrat - 05/29/03): An exact copy of the Associated Press article first published by Newsday.com on 05/28/03.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=8156726&BRD=2101&PAG=461&dept_id=392169&rfi=6

Current News Articles (4):

Rockfish Proposal Has Merits, Drawbacks (Eastern [Maryland] Star-Democrat - 05/28/03) [NOTE: Scroll to bottom of page for Mute Swan article]: Keith Walter’s tongue-in-cheek remarks on the edibility of Mute Swans in his Up the Creek column end with this serious suggestion from Jim Price, a resident of Oxford, Maryland: “People who are concerned about the [Chesapeake] Bay should sue the people who sued to protect Mute Swans. Anybody who is stopping us from cleaning up the Bay should be held responsible for it.
”http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=8146518&BRD=2101&PAG=461&dept_id=392208&rfi=6

Activist Goes to Federal Court to Stop Programs in at Least Nine States (Newsday.com - 05/28/03): This 9-paragraph story from the Associated Press repeats the news, first reported by the Baltimore Sun, that Connecticut resident Kathryn Burton, founder and president of Save Our Swans, filed suit in Federal court on May 22 to rescind permits authorizing the take of Mute Swans in at least 9 States on grounds that “the permitting process being used [the "categorical exclusion" provision of NEPA] is illegal.”
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-ny--muteswankill0528may28,0,1536293.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire

Activists Urge Protection of Massachusetts' Swans (WCVT-TV [Boston, Massachusetts] - 05/28/03): This 5-paragraph, 5-sentence story attributed to the Associate Press repeats the story first reported in the Baltimore Sun that Save Our Swans USA has filed a Federal lawsuit asking the courts to rescind permits authorizing the take of Mute Swans in a least 9 States.
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/2232825/detail.html

Lawsuit Seeks to End Killing of Mute Swans (Baltimore [Maryland] Sun - 05/28/03): This 9-paragraph story by Dennis O'Brien reports that Kathryn Burton, founder and president of Save Our Swans USA filed a suit in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., on May 22 "to rescind [Mute Swan] permits issued to a number of States, including Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota" on grounds that "the permitting process being used [the "categorical exclusion" provision of NEPA] is illegal." Includes quotes from Burton, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Mike Meagher, and Mark Knee, wildlife biologist for the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians in Manistee, Michigan.
http://www.sunspot.net/news/local/bal-md.swans28may28,0,2943362.story?coll=bal-local-headlines

Current News Articles (4):

Bringing Home Fish Isn't the Point (Baltimore [Maryland] Sun - 05/25/03 [NOTE: Scroll to section entitled Swan Project Muted]): This article criticizes the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to withdraw a permit to shoot 1,500 Mute Swans in Maryland after environmental activitsts filed suit in Federal court, and reacts with skepticism to a statement by USFWS spokeswoman Diane Pence that a review of the Maryland control program is a “work in progress,” especially in light of the considerable review already conducted by the Maryland DNR. A statement by Patrick Hornberger, one of the plaintiffs, that he “likes to watch swans prompts this reaction from Outdoors columnist Candus Thomson: “Hey, I like to watch Harrison Ford, but I wouldn’t want to see 6,000 of him and I sure wouldn’t file an expensive lawsuit to protect my selfish interests.”
http://www.sunspot.net/sports/outdoors/bal-sp.thomson25may25,0,583221.story?coll=bal%2Dsports%2Doutdoors

Environmental Success Stories Buoy L.I. Sound Advocates (New London [Connecticut] Day - 05/25/03): An exact replicate of a story by Kirk Johnson posted earlier today by the New York Times under a different headline.
http://www.theday.com/eng/web/mktplace/re.aspx?relDx=bf0106d5-61a0-4e17-b346-0bfc5fade088

Swan Killings Draw Protests (Boston [Massachusetts] Globe - 05/25/03): As reported by staff writer Sarah Schweitzer, some residents of Plum Island--upset that officials of the nearby Parker River National Wildlife Refuge have killed four Mute Swans so far this year under a Federal permit--protested the action over the weekend. Statewide, five one-year permits are in effect that allow for the killing of 117 swans. The Massachusetts Mute Swan population has grown from 585 birds in 1986 to 2,929 in 2003. Includes quotes from Refuge manager Janet Kennedy, USFWS spokesman Mike Meagher, and several Plum Island residents.
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/145/metro/Swan_killings_draw_protests+.shtml

Tide of Humanity Alters Long Island Sound (New York Times - 05/25/03 [NOTE: Access to this article may require registration, a relatively painless process): In this long essay, writer Kirk Johnson explores some of the ways in which human habitation has influenced ecological processes in the Sound, with a focus on restoration efforts in Mumford Cove near Groton, Connecticutt. After a decade, the depleted eelgrass beds of the Cove had returned to their former abundance. The appearance of three pairs of Mute Swans in the Cove in spring 2003--their first recorded occurrence there during the State’s annual bird surveys--”suggests that another cycle of human-influenced nature may be taking place,” the swans being “notoriously destructive and voracious feeders who love, perhaps more than anything else--you guessed it--eel grass.” The author concludes: “Like a nursery rhyme turned on its head, the logical links tumble like dominoes. It’s a crime [under Federal and State law] to harm the Mute Swans that eat the eelgrass that shelter the scallops that the Sound’s managers would love to restore if they could.”

This Week in Review (May 18-24, 2003)

Current News Items: Additions this week: 6. Cumulative to date: 138. A slow news week with just 6 news items, all related to the decision to halt the shooting of swans on the Chesapeake Bay by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Older Online Documents: Additions this week: 18 from 10 sources. Cumulative to date: 47 from 26 sources.

Older Online Documents (18):

Documents from the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center:

The Exotic Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) in Chesapeake Bay, U.S.A. (Matthew C. Perry et al. - 04/13/01)
http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/resshow/perry/muteswan.htm

Biological and Ecotoxicological Characteristics of Terrestrial Vertebrate Species Inhabiting Estuaries: Mute Swan ( - updated 05/19/03)
http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/bioeco/muteswan.htm

Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter: Mute Swan - Cygnus olor (G. A. Gough et al. - 12/28/00)
http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/i1782id.html

North American Breeding Bird Survey: Results and Analyses 1966-2002 (J. R. Sauer et al. - 05/20/03):
http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/bbs/

Trend Results [1966-2002]
http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/cgi-bin/atlasa02.pl?01782

Summer Distribution Map
http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/bbs/htm96/map617/ra1782.html

Breeding Distribution Map
http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/bbs/htm96/htmra/ra1782.html

Trend Map, 1966-1996
http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/bbs/htm96/trn626/tr1782.html

Map of Winter Distribution from Christmas Bird Count
http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/bbs/cbcra/h1782ra.html

Audio and Text from Watershed Radio:

Mute Swans in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed (10/19/01)
http://www.watershedradio.org/october2001/101901mutes.htm

Species Account from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources:

Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas: Mute Swan - Cygnus olor (Peterjohn and Rice - 1991)
http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/dnap/OhioBirding/Bird%20PDF/MuteSwan.pdf

An Independent Review Article:

Did Trumpeter Swans Ever Occur in Eastern North America? (Bill Whan and Gerry Rising - no date) [NOTE: Scroll to the section entitled "An Added Note About Trumpeter Swans Versus Mute Swans" (near bottom of page)]
http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~insrisg/nature/swans.html

Report from Bird Studies Canada:

Population Status, Nutrient Reserve Dynamics, and Dietary Intake of Mute Swans on the Lower Great Lakes (Long Point Waterfowl and Wetlands Research Fund - no date)
http://www.bsc-eoc.org/lpbo/lpwwrfmuteswan.html

Abstract from a Niagara Escarpment Commission Conference - Leading Edge 2001--Focus on the Biosphere:

Rapid Increase in the Lower Great Lakes Population of Feral Mute Swans: A Review and a Recommendation (Scott A. Petrie and Charles A. Francis - October 2001)
http://www.escarpment.org/leading_edge/LE01/posters/Petrie.pdf

Article from the American Birding Association's Journal Birding:

Mute Swans Make Noise: Lower Great Lakes Population Scrutinized (Scott A. Petrie - February 2002)
http://www.bsc-eoc.org/download/Mute%20Swan.pdf

Article from the [Iowa] Trumpeter Swan Restoration Committee's Trumpeting the Cause Newsletter:

Intrusion of the Mute Swan (Emily Sloan - Fall 2001)
http://www.stuorg.iastate.edu/swan/news5/page5.html

Searchable Database from BirdSource:

Great Backyard Bird Count (National Audubon Society and Cornell Lab of Ornithology)
http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/

Searchable Database from National Audubon Society:

Christmas Bird Count (2003)
http://www.audubon.org/bird/cbc/

Current News Articles (2):

Opinion: Mute Swans (Annapolis [Maryland] Capital - 05/21/03): Reader Bill Schneider supports the notion that Mute Swans need to be controlled in the Chesapeake Bay because they are an invasive species, but believes that control should be extended to areas beyond those where they are concentrated in large numbers.

F&WS, Maryland's DNR, Wimp Out on Mute Swans (Washington [D.C.] Times - 05/21/03):
http://washingtontimes.com/sports/20030521-125933-3904r.htm

Current News Article (1):

Animal Rights Group and FWS Halt Maryland's Mute Swan Cull on Chesapeake Bay (Seafood.com News - 05/20/03): Noting that the alien Mute Swan "has been munching away at the precious" submerged underwater grasses that "provide habitat for fish and shellfish," Ken Coons reports that "Maryland officials announced [last week] they have suspended efforts to kill Mute Swans in the Chesapeake Bay."
http://www.seafood.com/news/current/97602.html

Current News Articles (2):

Victory for Mute Swans (Friends of Animals - 05/19/03): Hails the Chesapeake Bay "cease-fire" prompted by a complaint filed by Fund for Animals and three Maryland residents, including SaveMarylandSwans president Patrick Hornberger (also FoA's Maryland advisor), and notes that "FoA will continue to expose the lies about Mute Swans being the primary cause for the loss of underwater vegetation in Chesapeake Bay."
http://www.friendsofanimals.org/news/cease.htm

Maryland Gives Up Federal Permit to Kill Mute Swans (Environmental News Service - 05/19/03):
http://ens-news.com/ens/may2003/2003-05-19-09.asp#anchor5