[birdky] Re: Purple Swamphen

We saw Purple Gallinules on our recent birding Elderhostel in southern South 
Carolina. Our leaders were quite excited to see them, since they are somewhat 
rare there... unlike the Moorhens that are common.....  We had a good trip... 
115 species, including swallow tail Kites

Millie Farmer
St. Matthews, KY
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Brian Stern 
  To: KY Birdlist Birdlist 
  Sent: Monday, April 27, 2009 11:56 PM
  Subject: [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

Other related posts: