[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ TAS BirdBoard ] [ FAQ ]
Posted by John Boyd on 06:33:15 05/26/11
In Reply to: Re: A New Bird for My Palm Beach County List posted by Alex Harper
Disturbance is too mild a term for the logging of the park's pinelands in the 1940's.
So far as I can tell, there's no evidence that Bachman's Sparrow ever was a breeding bird in either Everglades National Park or Big Cypress. Perhaps it is too wet for them.
The one specimen from Collier that might possibly have been on territory was not from Big Cypress. Note that the 1986-1991 Florida Breeding Bird Atlas also turned up a possible breeder in northern Collier County (in the notch it makes in Hendry).
F.M. Phelps's survey of the breeding birds of the Big Cypress region (March-May 1913, including Corkscrew and Okaloacoochee, all then in Lee County) did not mention Bachman's at all. The only sparrows mentioned are towhee and Grasshopper Sparrow. Interestingly, he describes the latter as "common on the prairies". He did not find any nests, and I suspect these were actually late wintering birds.
In fact, I found the whole list interesting, both for what he found, and what he didn't. He seems to have only included species that he believed (or confirmed) to be breeding birds.
Wood Duck
Mottled Duck
Northern Bobwhite
Wild Turkey
Wood Stork
Anhinga
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Green Heron
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
White Ibis
Roseate Spoonbill
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture (no evidence of nesting)
Osprey
Swallow-tailed Kite
Bald Eagle
Northern Harrier (seen in April, but no evidence of nesting)
Red-shouldered Hawk
Short-tailed Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Crested Caracara
American Kestrel
Purple Gallinule
Common Gallinule
Limpkin
Sandhill Crane
Mourning Dove
Common Ground-Dove
Eastern Screech-Owl
Great Horned Owl
Burrowing Owl
Barred Owl
Common Nighthawk
Chuck-will's-widow
Red-headed Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Red-cockaded Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Pileated Woodpecker
Ivory-billed Woodpecker
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
Loggerhead Shrike
White-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
Purple Martin
Brown-headed Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
Eastern Bluebird
Northern Mockingbird
Common Yellowthroat
Eastern Towhee
Grasshopper Sparrow (no nests found)
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Common Grackle
Boat-tailed Grackle
[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ TAS BirdBoard ] [ FAQ ]