Sorry that I'm a little slow in picking up this thread, but I've been away
on vacation.

I noted with interest the inclusion of chipping sparrow on the King County
extinct list. I recorded one at Marymoor somewhere along the line; I
believe it was during my first winter in the Seattle area. I thought it
unremarkable at the time, so I didn't make a note of field marks, which is
another way of saying that I may have misidentified it. But in case I had
it right, it's worth keeping an eye peeled for.

Jim McCoy
jfmccoy at earthlink.net
Redmond, WA



-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Newbold [mailto:newboldwildlife at netscape.net]
Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2000 9:36 PM
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: extinct list for King County


Hey Kelly, what are you trying to do, remove one of my big worries in life?
Make me a happier person? How could you do such a thing! The problem is if
I
don?t worry about the extinction crisis, I?ll just worry more about other
things, like going down on a jetliner or whether that check I just kited
will
bounce.
Besides, I think there is an extinction crisis. There probably won?t be
massive vertebrate extinctions here real soon simply because we don?t have
many vertebrate species and we have even fewer endemics--no endemic birds at
all, for instance. Look at islands and the tropics. In Hawaii right now,
the
Po?ouli is down to three individuals?not extinct but maybe next year. Then
perhaps the Kamao and Puaiohi will be next.
Using mostly Eugene Hunn?s Birding in Seattle and King County, I put
together this list of birds that used to be common or relatively common
right
around here that are now all functionally extinct in King County:
Lewis?s Woodpecker
Yellow Billed Cuckoo
Western Bluebird
Common Nighthawk
Chipping Sparrow

Nationally, Buff Breasted Sandpipers and Golden Winged Warblers are in deep
trouble and one of my pet peeves is that the Bachman?s Warbler went down
without even getting any public attention. That?s like dying and not
making
the obit page. At least the Ivory Billed Woodpecker got some press?and is
getting more now as humans manage to put an optimistic spin on a story that
is
tough to process simply because it is such a downer.

Still, it's the Kelly MacAlisters and others of the world who aren't caught
up
in the depressing angst of it all who will actually go out and do stuff to
help biodiversity and avert extinctions, so post onward!

Tweeter by digest (meaning I don?t know what got posted today), Ed Newbold
Beacon Hill Seattle newboldwildlife at netscape.net



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