The Birds of Dutchess County New York Today and Yesterday A survey of current status with historical changes since 1870 DIGITAL PART 2 OF 3 by Stan DeOrsey and Barbara A. Butler ◊ Published on behalf of The Ralph T. Waterman Bird Club, Inc. Poughkeepsie, New York 2006 ◊ - 1 - Copyright © 2006 by Stan DeOrsey and Barbara A. Butler All rights reserved First printing August 2006 First digital edition December 2010 with minor corrections, minimal updates, and three added images. Financial support was provided through a grant from the New York State Biodiversity Research Institute. ISBN 978-0-9635190-2-3 Overleaf : The small bird symbol was created by Ralph Waterman to use on personal notes and to mark pottery fired as a hobby. It is traditionally used by the Waterman Bird Club. - 2 - CONTENTS PART 1 DUTCHESS COUNTY MAP FOREWORD by Otis Waterman PREFACE TABLE OF MAJOR SOURCES OF RECORDS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS SUPPLEMENTAL DATA PEOPLE NAMED PLACES NAMED BIBLIOGRAPHY PART 2 HISTORY OF ORNITHOLOGY IN DUTCHESS COUNTY........................ 4 THE NATURE AND USE OF THE LAND................................ 16 BIRDS LOST AND GAINED IN DUTCHESS COUNTY........................ 26 TABLES OF CHANGING NESTING STATUS LIST OF BIRDS IN VICINITY OF FISHKILL-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. by Winfrid A. Stearns (1880). 38 PART 3 SPECIES INDEX ANNOTATED LIST OF THE BIRDS OF DUTCHESS COUNTY INTRODUCTION SPECIES ACCOUNTS MISCELLANEOUS REPORTS GENERAL SUMMARY OF CURRENT STATUS - 3 - 4 THE HISTORY OF ORNITHOLOGY IN DUTCHESS COUNTY FROM DISCOVERY TO 1870 The first stage in studying birds is to find and name them. When Europeans first stepped ashore in the New World, literally everything was new, including the vast majority of bird species. Regardless, they assigned familiar names to seemingly familiar birds, such as Martin, Redstart and Robin. It is unfortunate that the Indians were not able to impart their knowledge of local wildlife. Certainly they were well acquainted with the variety of birds and the timings of their passages. The first Europeans to arrive were more interested in discovery and exploration than studying nature, including Henry Hudson, the first European to see the future Dutchess County. When he sailed the river that now bears his name in September 1609, Hudson kept a journal, but it does not provide details of local birds. The first Europeans to settle what became Dutchess County arrived by the mid-1600s, but their time was consumed eking out a living from the land. Rudimentary documents from early explorers and settlers hint at a different composition of bird life than found in the 1800s. Tales are told of flocks of White Pelicans and Cranes passing overhead, of Wild Turkeys and Passenger Pigeons filling the forests. Alexander Wilson (1766-1813) was the first to fully describe the birds found in the eastern states. His book American Ornithology was published from 1808 to 1814 in nine volumes. He apparently never came to Dutchess County, although he twice sailed the Hudson River, from Albany to New York City in November 1804, and from New York City to Albany in September 1812. By the early nineteenth century writings survive that mention birds specifically seen in Dutchess County. Dr. John Bachman, for whom a warbler is named, visited Dutchess County in 1812 and recorded Gadwalls raised from a pair captured on a local mill pond in 1809. In his book Birds of Long Island , published in 1844, Jacob P. Giraud, Jr. documented a White-rumped Sandpiper seen near Poughkeepsie. And James D. Hyatt 1 told of the Red-headed Woodpecker being rather common from 1838 to 1850. Also in 1844, James E. DeKay (1792-1851) published the first book to focus only on New York State birds, Zoology of New York, Birds.2 By the Civil War, the birds of the Northeast were known, but the timings of migration and especially their breeding and wintering territories were largely unknown. Details needed to be recorded at the local level. 5 1870-1900 — LOCAL PEOPLE, LOCAL BIRDS For the 1870s, we find three sources of limited local bird information—the chapter on zoology in the General History of Du[t]chess County , by Philip H. Smith; List of Birds of the Hudson Highlands , by Edgar A. Mearns (1856-1916); and The Isle of Long Ago, Sporting Days , by Edwin C. Kent 3 (1856-1938). Each of these works gives an intriguing glimpse into bird life in Dutchess County. Smith, whose work is interesting but too general to be very informative for many species, tells of the House Sparrow, a recently introduced species with “a contentious disposition.” Mearns’ work is excellent and complete but largely covers the area around Highland Falls (West Point), including Dutchess County only in its broader area. Kent’s book relates memories of hunting and fishing around Fishkill-on-Hudson (Beacon) from the perspective of 60 years. By focusing on hunting, he excludes the vast majority of song birds, although he weaves the only known first person account of the Passenger Pigeon in Dutchess County as it was being slaughtered into extinction. Naturalist Winfrid A. Stearns (1852-1909) wrote the original manuscript of New England Bird Life , heavily edited by Elliott Coues. He also wrote on the natural history of Labrador, which he visited shortly after leaving Dutchess County.4 Stearns spent ten months in Fishkill-on-Hudson (Beacon) from September 1879 through June 1880, during which time he compiled and published the first annotated local list of birds of Dutchess County, numbering 132 species. 5 The list is important due to its age and for brief but informative annotations. Most of Stearns’ records were supported by specimens, including some from local collectors. Like Kent, Stearns is focused on the Beacon area and thus misses birds found elsewhere in the county. Since he was here for under one year, he also missed the less frequently occurring birds, notably shorebirds. On the other side of the county at Honeymead Brook, Stanfordville, Miss Mary Hyatt 6 (1862-1940) tracked spring arrival dates beginning in 1885, as well as species of casual occurrence. Her original lists survive. 7 Hyatt listed only birds seen at her farm, so misses waterfowl, shorebirds, and any others found elsewhere in the county. By the 1880s, “bird watching,” to the degree it existed, was in fact “bird shooting.” The field guide had yet to be developed and binoculars were expensive. Identification often required close examination of the body, which in turn generated large collections of bird skins. In 1893, Lispenard S. Horton 8 (1878-1942), then living in Gretna, started a collection of bird eggs. He also photographed young birds and nests, keeping extensive notes on nesting dates. 9 Beginning as early as 1904, many of his photographs were published in various books and magazines. 10 When Elon Howard Eaton (1866-1934) was compiling his state book, Birds of New York , he turned to both Hyatt and Horton for Dutchess County data, which yielded a list of 152 species. Pre-1900 bird records are often detailed in shooting journals kept by hunters of the period. While Dutchess County has a large number of hunt clubs, some established before 1900, no true hunt journal is known to have survived. Kent’s book comes the closest, although Stearns included some data supplied by hunters. Another early collector was Arthur Bloomfield 11 (1866-1943) of Hyde Park, who assembled and mounted an extensive collection of bird skins from 1890 to about 1919. 12 When he and Crosby met in 1923, Bloomfield added ten previously unrecorded species 13 to Crosby’s recently published Dutchess County list. Franklin Roosevelt was well aware of Bloomfield and his interests. 14 Young Roosevelt played with the children of neighbor Col. Archibald Rogers, where Bloomfield was the butler. Bloomfield introduced Roosevelt to taxidermy. 6 Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945) was interested in nature and birds. At the age of 14, he kept a bird diary of every species heard or seen around Hyde Park between January and June 1896, when he left for the family summer home on Campobello Island, Canada. That same year he shot and mounted a number of birds, which remain on display at his home, and also collected Pine Grosbeaks for Frank Chapman at the American Museum of Natural History.15 Vassar College received three noted bird skin collections from this period. In 1867 Jacob Post Giraud, Jr. 16 (1811-1870) donated about 700 North American bird skins, including 13 which had belonged to Audubon. He also provided funds to start a museum. Prof. James H. Orton, the Vassar Museum curator in the 1870s, contributed about 500 South American bird skins. And in 1904, Curtis Clay Young from Brooklyn gave 500 bird skins and 463 eggs, some from Dutchess County. Two of the rarer skins were sold in 1965 to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto 17 — a Labrador Duck, and the Great Auk originally given to John James Audubon and the model for his painting. Both are extinct; neither occurred in Dutchess County. The Vassar College collection was dispersed by 1980 with the majority of it going to the New York State Museum. Vassar Brothers Institute also housed a collection of bird skins dating from the 1880s. 18 A collection from Eugene Bicknell (1859-1925), for whom a thrush was named, was there as well. All were dispersed during the 1950s. Today, historic collections are on display at the Akin Library in Pawling and the Grinnell Library in Wappingers Falls. There was also a segment of people, including Horton, interested primarily in bird nesting. This interest usually manifested itself through studying and collecting birds’ eggs, known as oology. Oology provided insights into when and where birds nested, data still valuable today.