[texbirds] Spring 2014 - Sesquicentennial of the Golden-cheeked Warbler in Texas

From: Chuck Sexton <gcwarbler@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: TexBirds TexBirds Posting <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 10 Sep 2013 11:03:42 -0500

TexBirders (and History Buffs):

Next Spring (2014) will mark a fairly interesting milestone for the 
Golden-cheeked Warbler: The Sesquicentennial of the first record of the species 
in Texas.  Some of you may recall me rambling on about the 150th anniversary of 
the species' discovery in Guatemala a few years back (2009 to be exact); now we 
can bring the story home.  From the incredibly important research of Warren 
Pulich Sr. (published in his monograph on the species, pp. 6-8), we learned the 
following:

It was sometime in the Spring of 1864 (exact date unknown) that a 17-yr-old boy 
named Duncan C. Ogden Jr. of San Antonio collected the first Golden-cheeked 
Warbler in Texas.  He found it on the Howard Ranch on the Medina River south of 
town.  He conveyed the specimen to Prof. A. L. Heermann (…larophiles take 
note…) who later sent it to H. E. Dresser.  Dresser published a brief note 
about the specimen in 1865 and Osbert Salvin (who had collected the first GCWA 
in Guatemala) published a more detailed account of the discovery in 1876.

The Howard Ranch later became the Watson Ranch and more recently was part of 
the area where the abortive Applewhite Reservoir was planned for construction.  
The latter project was never built and the land (acquired by the City of San 
Antonio, I believe) was turned into the Medina River Natural Area, now managed 
by the San Antonio Parks & Recreation Dept.:

http://www.sanaturalareas.org/mr/mrindex.html

This encompasses the stretch of river between TX 16 and Applewhite Road, south 
of Watson Road.  I believe the main trailhead is located off TX 16 (N side of 
river) and access is also available off Applewhite Road (S side of river), 
although I haven't hiked any of the trail yet myself.

It might be an appropriate pilgrimage next Spring for those of interested in 
this kind of thing to spend some time along the Medina River in late February 
or early March to see if we can catch sight of a migrant Golden-cheek, right 
where *our* species first encountered *that* species in Texas 150 yrs earlier.

Chuck Sexton
Austin


p.s.  I had previously been in contact with some of the natural 
history-oriented staff of the S.A. PARD but have lost those names and contacts. 
 I rather suspect that department might want to organize some type of 
celebration around this sesquicentennial (as we did at  Travis Audubon and 
Balcones Canyonlands NWR back in 2009).  If someone knows the appropriate staff 
contact(s) in San Antonio's parks department, please forward that info to 
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[texbirds] Spring 2014 - Sesquicentennial of the Golden-cheeked Warbler in Texas

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