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Take a look at this video. This guy shoots damn fast. 9,3x62 seems to be perfect for wild hogs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9vqhRQPITI

On the DEC’s social media today Jeffrey A Frick Will you just kill them like you want to kill the swans? Lynn Tricia Its called birth control on the population Remy Vicious so do mute swans. please desist with your cruel & unnecessary proposal to kill them. they can be controlled by spaying they needn't be "culled" they have been here hundreds of years with minimal impact & interact peacefully with other waterfowl like canadian geese & mallard ducks. i have lived by or in the brooklyn waterways all my life. swans do not tread on muddy marsh grasses they're too heavy to do so. conserve our wildlife do not destroy it! the overwhelming preponderance of park visitors are there to enjoy nature & wildlife & are not hunters. do not pander merely to hunters. there isn't sufficient evidence that your plan to "cull" all mute swans fron nys by 2025 will be in any way beneficial to our waterways. it certainly will not be a boon to park tourism! Christian Di Lalla PREPARE FOR CIVIL WAR IF YOU KILL SWANS 6 people like this. James R. Sullivan As wildlife Conservationist i am very upset they want to kill the sawns on long island. we need to stop killing wildlife in the state of new york. it seems like all we talk about is killing wildlife. NYS picks a Animal they do not want in new york state and than we go and create hunting season 5 people like this. Bob Rose Invasive species such as the MUTE swans and the wild pigs that are now part of our landscape, ruin habitat and are in direct competition with our native species. To the folks that are posting against this- are you aware there are actually d...ifferent species of swans in North America? NY is the only state in the Eastern flyway that has not met the goal of the Mute swan population reduction. Before you dig you heels in with an emotional response, I encourage you to read DEC's 11 page report.See More Diane Prokop Chatterton I heard from Channel 12 News that you are going to shoot the swans on long island. Instead of doing this terrible act, why don't you thin out their eggs. As far as these beautiful swans attaching anyone, I have been to these parks many ti...mes and I have never ever seen these birds attaching anyone. I do wildlife photography and go to these parks a lot. When people bring their dogs to the park, I've seen their dogs attack these birds all the time but does that mean we are going to put down these dogs, of course not. Birth control is more the answer and not a massive killing of a beautiful swan.See More 9 people like this. Carla Jean Page SHAME ON YOU FOR MURDERING SWANS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MURDERERS!!!!!!!! 5 people like this. Adam Silber this agency is exactley whats wrong with governement. does nothing but kill kill kill Jennifer Lysogorski likes this. Ryan Reading There crooked as a 2 dollar bill Walter C. PlumeKilling animals like swans is not managing them!!!! You need to be dismantled!!!! The foxes are guarding the hen house. Shame on you!!!!!!!!! Sue Miller likes this. Amazon CrackerI think the planned massacre of the mute swans is horrifying! 2 people like this. Joan Patricia Steinacher-Napolitano totally agree. January 17 at 6:24pm · Like · 1 Yvonne Kleine I do believe the Lord God is weeping at our constant brutality and folly. This is animal cruelty of the vilest sort. · Like · 2 Sue MillerThe killing of Mute swans across America is one of the most despicable hoaxes ever perpetrated on the American tax payer. To even consider spending tax payers hard earned dollars on this in the worst economy is unacceptable. This killing of... an ENTIRE SPECIES is based upon monetary gain & complete disregard for sound environmental practices. The Killing or proposal to kill Mute swans is taking place in New York, Michigan, Maryland, N.J. & other states. The Mute swans are currently being killed because there is no "Trophy Waterfowl" for hunters .The excuses for killing Mute swans is that they 2 people like this.

Changes in reporting Rock Doves January 22, 2014 Link to below article: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/rock-pigeon/ Changes to reporting Rock Pigeon 22 January 2014 Rock Pigeon will disappear from most checklists this week, and Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) will remain as the option to use in most of the world. Since eBird is a global system it needs to be consistent throughout the world. In the Old World, where Rock Pigeon is native, most observers draw distinctions between Feral Pigeons (city pigeons, typically with non-wild plumage phenotypes) and ‘wild type’ Rock Pigeons. The latter have become quite rare in many areas, so reporting them as “Rock Pigeon (Wild type)” is of interest. In most of the world, however, Rock Pigeons are derived from captive stock and should be reported as “Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)” to make this distinction. This includes all Rock Pigeons in the Americas, Australia, sub-Saharan Africa, many islands, and many other areas where Rock Pigeons are restricted to urban and agrarian areas and where Wild type Rock Pigeons do not occur. eBird checklists will be updating for a final time this week (22 Jan 2014) to allow the correct options for each area. We will also be updating your records so that they reflect the proper Rock Pigeon type. For most eBirders, this means that your records will be converted to Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon). From this point forth, most area checklists will only show Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) since we want to encourage the use of Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) in areas where only that form is known. Please do not enter “Rock Pigeon” except in rare cases where both Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) and Rock Pigeon (Wild type) co-occur and can be difficult to distinguish. In these instances, all three forms will be available on the data entry checklists. Some instability is to be expected in eBird alerts as these changes take place. This change is probably going to be confusing for some, so below we provide some detail on how to best report your pigeons. A good general map for the occurrence of Wild type Rock Pigeons and Feral Pigeons can be seen on Wikipedia. Note however that lots of Feral Pigeons occur within the range of the wild type Rock Pigeons on that map. Again, note that within the following areas, all Rock Pigeons should be entered using the eBird data entry option “Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)”: North America South America Australia and New Zealand Northern, East, and Southeast Asia (roughly all areas south of southern Kazakhstan and east of India) northern Europe, except Scotland and Ireland In addition, almost all birds in cities and around farmlands will be Feral Pigeons. Most flocks in these areas contain pigeons of a variety of colors and patterns and this is typical for Feral Pigeons. Wild type birds are likely to be restricted to sea cliffs and mountainous areas and are likely to all look the same: clean gray on the back with two black bars on the wing, a gray tail base with a broad dark terminal band, and a limited white rump patch. Note that some Feral Pigeons match the color and pattern of wild type birds and may not be readily distinguished except by range, habitat, and behavior. Below is some guidance on the two main groups that will be options for data entry for Rock Pigeons: 1) Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) – this is to be used for all feral populations, including those within the native range of Rock Pigeon (Wild type). City birds matching wild type, or even populations of Feral Pigeons that have returned to the wild and returned to wild type phenotypes, should not be entered as “Wild type”. Almost all records worldwide (except in known areas of wild occurrence) should be entered as “Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon).” Records of Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) will count on your eBird lists and will be summarized under the overarching species, Rock Pigeon. 2) Rock Pigeon (Wild type) – this is to be used ONLY within the native range of the species for birds that match the wild type (wild phenotype). The Clements checklist has 13 wild subspecies, and these are all members of this group. In eBird this is a “form” (i.e., a taxonomic entity not used in the Clements list and not matching other eBird categories) and all records count on your eBird lists and will be summarized under the overarching species Rock Pigeon. This form should not be entered on checklists outside the native range of this species. Use it only within the native range where appearance and behavior match the wild type. Areas where wild Rock Pigeons occur include: Scotland, Ireland, and Faroes – coastal sea cliffs only southern Europe, especially mountains such as the Pyrenees, Alps, Dinaric Alps, Balkans, and Caucasus. The European range spans from Portugal and Spain across the Alps, Italy, the Mediterranean coast and inland mountains east to Turkey and around the shores of the Black Sea; north of there, most birds are Feral Pigeons. Mullarney et al. (1999. Birds of Europe) provides a good range map for wild type Rock Pigeon (which is known as Rock Dove in that guide). Mountainous areas of northern Africa; range continuous on coasts and mountain ranges of northern Africa, but somewhat patchy in west Africa, including mountains and hills from e. Senegal to northern Benin and east to coastal Sudan and northern Eritrea. Sinclair and Ryan (2003. Birds of Africa south of the Sahara) and Borrow and Demey (2001. Birds of Western Africa) have good range maps for the species. Middle East, where widespread in most non-urban mountainous areas Central Asia, roughly from southern Kazakhstan south through western China to the western Himalayas of India Peninsular India and Sri Lanka, possibly east to northern Myanmar eBird also has a third taxon that will be used rarely: 3) Rock Pigeon – this is the overarching species. This will appear in summary data for life lists and also as a range map option (to see the two taxa above together). This may be useful as a data entry option in cases where introgression occurs (localized areas in the Old World) and such birds should be entered as Rock Pigeon with notes that the birds appear to be wild type intergrades with Feral Pigeons. There are also areas where uncertainty exists regarding whether cliff-nesting birds with wild phenotypes are a true wild population or not (this is a problem in Iceland and Turkey, and probably elsewhere as well). In these cases, the “overarching” Rock Pigeon is probably the best choice and observers should not be assigning them more specifically if it is unclear. Again, in the Americas and other areas where they are all introduced, “Rock Pigeon” is not the correct option to eBird your Rock Pigeon sightings. In the below areas birds are all from domestic stock and hence are all “Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon),” regardless of the plumage: North America South America Asia, anywhere north and east of a line from India to Kazakhstan Australia and New Zealand Most Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Ocean islands most countries in northern Europe (see European range of wild type Rock Pigeon above)

Avoiding banded rock doves in NY, the similarities and differences between hunting mournings & rocks Both species can be taken in the same feeding, watering, and grit collecting areas. However taking rock doves in locations where they feed, water, or grit in NY may set you up for a violation of Environmental Conservation Law 11-0513. This law prohibits taking Antwerp and Homer breeds which are wearing a seamless band or a ring with a registration number. If you can tell an Antwerp or Homer from any of the numerous breeds of domesticated rock doves you probably have the bird in your hand and you are a pigeon fancier who keeps birds, not a pigeon hunter… Even an ornithologist might not have much interest in the various breeds of rock doves and therefore may not be able to discern what it is beyond a rock dove… An ornithologist can inspect the bird and tell you it’s sex and age, but not necessarily it’s breed. That is because breed, unlike race which is created by natural selection, is created by animal breeders – people, and that may or may not interested a bird biologist… We are assuming here this is hunting. We are not assuming this is controlling nuisance wildlife. The birds are not causing a problem for the landowner , you are not a licensed WCO, don’t have a nuisance permit from the DEC, you don’t work for the USDA Wildlife Services, and you don’t work for the NY City Department of Health… The other assumption is that you are hunting in the state of New York… You can’t hunt mourning doves. If you could you could find both species in the same feeding, watering, and griting areas… But if you hunt rock doves in those areas I said you might take an illegal Antwerp or Homer… What? You say… Then where, how, this is outrageous, can’t be true… Well think about it. I know mourning doves feed on seeds and grain, and rocks feed on grain but I am not sure how eager they are about wild seeds. Both birds are closely related and due to their physiology need to drink and swallow grit at regular intervals… But if you set up on a combined field, water source, or near gravel such as a sandbar, road side, dry creek, or gravel pit, how do you know you aren’t taking somebodies birds out of some race competition? I guess you can get the race schedules, but don’t quote me on this, but I believe those races are long distance. Like they start in Maine and end in Florida. Or California to New York. I really don’t know… So what do you do? What else do birds need? Did I hear roost locations? Rock Doves roost in out buildings, silos, and under bridges… But how do you know if they are not just banded Antwerps and Homers taking a break in someone’s barn? Why do you think those rock doves keep coming back to the same silo every time even after you flush them out and make the benelli go boom, boom, boom? Because they are stupid right? Well maybe but wrong. They nest year-round and both parents raise the squab. And the flocks nest together; unlike most birds, including mourning doves which establish reproductive territories , spread themselves out, and avoid others; rock doves are different and nest in close proximity to each other like the rookeries of cormorants and herons… Now if you still want to hunt an orphan all them little ones, because at some point you will knock off both parents…. I will tell you what you gotta do… But if you break your neck its your fault not mine… You get up on a ladder at night with a flashlight and you net or catch the birds by hand and check for bands. Some birds will fly out but if your good you can inspect most of them. Are any banded? If they are you don’t hunt there… If there are no bands and you still want to shoot rock doves after seeing all the babies, and you will see babies, even if its negative 5 in January they still have nests – you say a little prayer that the ones which flew out were not banded and you come back during the day and hunt the roost, if you call that hunting…