I seem to recall a range map in the book Tracking Desire by Susan Cerulean
if anyone has it and can look it up?
Jan
-----Original Message-----
From: Ohio birds [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Bill
Whan
Sent: Sunday, August 05, 2012 8:37 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [Ohio-birds] Seeing Red.....swallowtails
Some rather premature red flags of autumn come from Ontario over the past
couple of days: a red knot, a red phalarope, and a rufous hummingbird.
As for swallow-tailed kites, here is some history. Most folks think
of them as a Florida species, but their range was once much larger, easily
encompassing Ohio. We have Ohio specimens in museums, including skins and
archaeological remains, and plenty of anecdotal evidence they were once
common in prairie country here. Modern texts, such as the BNA, seem a bit
timid about representing its former range. The OSU Museum has an egg
collected in New Hampshire. A hunter in Wisconsin wrote in 1854 of this
species that it was "at one time quite numerous on our prairies, and quite
annoying to us in grouse shooting." At one time it was regarded as common in
Vermont, with wintering records, and a summer resident in S. Dakota, etc.
It is hardly a difficult ID, so mis-identifications are unlikely. It should
not be surprising that humans with guns were complicit in the shrinkage of
its range; one commentator wrote "Direct human persecution of a conspicuous,
notoriously unwary bird whose original numbers in many areas may have been
relatively small seems the most likely cause of the rapid decline."
These days, fall roosts of this species in Florida have been estimated to
contain as much as 50% of the N. American population.
Bill Whan
Columbus
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