[birdky] Re: Purple Swamphen

Apparently this bird has been found in good numbers in Florida since about ten years ago. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_Swamphens_in_North_America

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_Swamphen

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-purple-swamp-hen-b040509pnapr05,0,1616638.story

"He estimated the current population at 2,000 to 3,000."
"The swamphen has the potential to spread up through Florida and into other Southeastern states, Hardin said." 

http://SunSentinel.com/swamphen
Seems to me it's been pretty windy this winter. Maybe those shingles that blew off my roof were because they were hit by a flying Purple Swamphen being blown in FL ;-) 

Brian


On Apr 27, 2009, at 11:03 PM, cbirding@xxxxxxx wrote:


I know how this report will be perceived but bear with me...

Location:     Mt. Carmel Church Rd. on Wilson Creek
Observation date:     4/26/09
Notes: While driving on the back side of Bernheim Forest I spotted what 
appeared to be a Purple Gallinule. I did not see a red bill as it was
pecking on the sandbar. I did see a very dark blue to black bird with very red legs dangling as the bird took to flight. Colleen and I immediately started digging through an older copy of National Geographic and could find nothing similar. We searched for 30 - 40 minutes but could not relocate the bird. It was after we got home and started going through other books when a casual mention of a Purple Swamphen with an illustration appeared in Sibley's Guide to Birds (p. 154). This is without a doubt the bird I saw; Colleen was looking elsewhere. I did call Brainard Palmer-Ball to discuss the probability or lack thereof. I continued to research this for a couple of hours today and came to the same 
conclusion.
Number of species:     1

Purple Swamphen     1

Tom Becker

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)




--
Brian Stern
brians99@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

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