Jerry and Tweets

You piqued my curiosity, so I did a little followup. If you go to
www.pwrc.usgs.gov/infobase/obsnames/obsnam2.pdf you will find a pdf version
that can be downloaded and printed (49 pages).

Brian H. Bell
Woodinville Wa
bellasoc at isomedia.com

----- Original Message -----
From: <jbroadus at seanet.com>
To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, August 09, 2005 5:59 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] A little more on pesky bird names


> On the thread abut colloquial bird names: There is a
> great resource for older common bird names published
> by the USDI, Fish and Wildlife Service, called "Obsolete
> English Names of North American Birds and Their
> Modern Equivalents" (Resource Publication 174) by
> Richard Banks (1988). It is a fine listing of names to get
> confused by. (I don't know if its still in print).
>
> One point you learn from exercising your brain with this
> is that many of the "colloquial" names were once
> accepted English names for what were considered
> subspecies. E.G: Sacramento, San Diego, San
> Joaquin, Santa Cruz, and Seattle wrens are all Bewick's
> wrens today. We tend to stick to the present AOU
> Checklist, but for several editions even it listed
> numerous names for birds that are now "lumped"
> together under much simpler, and more boring, labels.
>
> Some of the best, of course, are given to birds that
> have a a standout quality -- who could question that
> bog-pumper, dunk-a-doo, and stake-driver are all
> American bitterns? I also like blue crane (great blue
> heron), yellowhammer (northern flicker) and fly-up-the-
> creek (green heron). Interesting (also) is that long-tailed
> duck was an obsolete name for the oldsquaw. I won't go
> in to some of the names for cormorants.
>
> I have been saving up to write a trip report, using only
> the hated four letter codes, with all the codes based on
> out of date common names. Anarchy in
> communication.
>
> Jerry Broadus, PLS
> Geometrix Surveying, Inc.
> P.O. Box 249
> Puyallup, WA. 98371
>
>
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