A slippery slope - the ten year rule

Yeah, I have a life-list, and a state list and a year list and a
yard list. I even once extrapolated for the year I'd likely hit
400 in Oregon based on average new state birds seen per year
(how's that for being a data wonk?). But having said all that, I
don't take the 10 year rule very seriously and tend to exclude all
"exotics" except unequivocally established species like starlings,
House Sparrows and Rock Doves.

I've seen Eurasian Tree Sparrow in Astoria... on the ABA list
having passed the 10 year test in St.Louis, MO. I've seen Mute
Swan and Black Swan, Monk Parakeets and Budgerigars in Clatsop Co.
Mute Swan has even passed the 10 year test in Oregon in very
localized circumstances, though it's not countable on the Oregon
list. Monk Parakeets have been nesting near the Portland Airport
for at least 20 years, but are not countable.

Then there are the California Quail here in Clatsop Co that would
almost certainly not pass the 10 year muster. Ring-necked
Pheasant in Clatsop Co, without continuous reintroduction, is
also precarious... and don't even get me started on Turkeys.

Many of these "stable" introduced populations are so localized and
so difficult to genuinely prove non-assisted that counting them as
wild seems like cheating. And many allegedly wild populations
(Ring-necked Pheasant being a case in point) probably would not
remain in some areas if not for introduced food sources like grain
stubble (or bird seed in backyards or french fries in parking
lots). Once an exotic becomes countable we tend to lose our
interest in whether it really deserves to be counted, but claiming
a countable feral population in Bend does not make birds on
Trestle Bay any less suspect or any more countable there.

On the other hand, the 20,000 European Starlings that roost under
the Columbia River Bridge got to the lower Columbia by the sheer
force of their own biology. They were not introduced to Clatsop
County. They've earned the right to be ticked

Durrell Kapan and I once did a thought experiment. How many
Wrentits would one have to capture from Fort Stevens and drive
across the bridge to Fort Columbia to make a viable population?
Once released, how many years would it take for them to reach the
British Columbia border? What environmental impact would such a
release have? How many birders would wait 10 years before they
put them on their Washington list?

Dubious exotics (including American Black Duck) should be
counted, but in my opinion, they should not be countable.

But as Wayne said, it's your list.

--
Mike Patterson Alas, to wear the mantle of Galileo,
Astoria, OR it is not enough to be persecuted
celata at pacifier.com by an unkind establishment,
you must also be right.
---Robert Park
http://www.pacifier.com/~mpatters/bird/bird.html