[EBB Sightings] Female Redhead joins the notables at Lake Merritt

Just in case any Alameda County Big Year listers are contemplating running over to Lake Merritt to pick up Mute Swan, I took a look at the California Bird Records Committee's California Bird List (http://www.wfo-cbrc.org/cbrc/ca_list.html) and saw that Mute Swan is not listed, i.e., is not countable if you are sticking to the CBRC list.  Apparently a self-sustaining population is not deemed to be established in the wild in the state.  (It is considered established in some eastern states, including Massachusetts, where I used to live.)  So even if the Lake Merritt bird is not a released captive, its origin is still presumed to be suspect.

Glen Tepke
Oakland

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Hilary Powers 

> The Mute Swan that Glen reported was hanging out in the bird paddock, 
> and I asked the staff about him. The folks in the office said that as 
> far as they know he arrived under his own power - just showed up a few 
> days ago and settled in. This is the first swan I've seen on the lake in 
> the 17 years I've lived in the area.