3/4/2023 0 Comments Rescue birds sangamon county“The destruction of the natural environment in Sangamon County continues and consequently there there are very few wild places remaining …,” Bohlen added. Some species, such as turkey and trumpeter swans, have been reintroduced, he notes, “but I wonder if they are genetically the ‘same birds’ as the originals.” Some other birds probably were in the county prior to European immigration, although there is no solid documentation today of their presence, Bohlen wrote, among them the Eskimo curlew, long-billed curlew, whooping crane, trumpeter swan, swallow-tailed kit and common raven. Other extirpated species include ruffed grouse and wild turkey. Specimens exist of passenger pigeons and greater prairie chickens collected in Sangamon County in the 19th century, Bohlen wrote. The only mention of the Carolina Parakeet in the county was from Shireff (1835) who visited Springfield in 1833 and while along the Sangamon River, saw “The forests abounded with green coloured paroquets, which fluttered about with disagreeable noise, in flocks of six or seven.” The first bird species to be lost in the county were the Carolina Parakeet and Passenger Pigeon. Unfortunately, this process continues to accelerate today. The only birds present now (or those that were introduced, reintroduced or recently invaded) were those that survived that first onslaught by European and other peoples. The prairie was ploughed the sloughs, marshes and ponds were drained and the woodland was cut down. Soon after European settlement, nearly all of the natural habitats in Sangamon County were modified or destroyed over a relatively short time. However, Bohlen warns in his report, published online by the museum in 2013, that increasing human population has badly reduced avian diversity over the past 200 years and threatens to do more damage in the future. David Bohlen found 359 different species of birds in Sangamon County. A 40-year study by Illinois State Museum ornithologist H.
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