[tn-bird] Re: On Second thought... (oops!)
- From: Charlie <cmmbirds@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 2 Oct 2002 07:39:58 -0700 (PDT)
--- Luvsbirdn@xxxxxxx wrote:
> Your salamander advice to Anna has left me confused
Hi Kelly,
Not to worry. You're not the only one! You were the 3rd person to
ask me about this. I shouldn't have second-guessed myself.
Yes, salamander taxonomy is changing pretty rapidly right now (for
those of you worried about 8 "Red Crossbill" species, consider that
the Dusky has been split into about twice that many!)
as it turns out, I was guessing Slimy based on my field experience,
and should have left it there. But then I decided to look in a book.
I made the mistake of looking in a regional book.
Here's the deal. There are 13 (!) species of Slimy Salamander now.
At least 4 are found in Tennessee. The book I was looking at only
listed the Northern Slimy, which is restricted as I wrote in my post.
But the complex as a whole is pretty wide-spread, and indeed, is
more likely to be the one Anna found.
Thanks to those folks who gently and tactfully corrected me on this.
Nice folks out there on TN-bird.
One point, though. Yes, the Lead-backed is less common than the
red-backed. However in the places I've seen the former, I've seen
lots of 'em. I once found about 25 in an hour, in Eastern PA, and
only found 3-4 of the more common morph. So finding 2 wouldn't
really mean much for, or against that species.
Finally, in a second email, Anna told me they were perhaps 4 inches
long - certainly too big to be Red-backed, in my opinion.
> I feel silly questioning a Senior Naturalist in the
> most-salamander-diverse National Park in the U.S.
Don't feel silly! That's how we all learn!
> please consider that Gale Norton could probably teach each of us a
> thing or two about birds and salamanders
I'd need serious convincing of that. I'll bet she could really teach
us a lot about board-feet or mineral rights, though.
- but then again, as one of my
As I haven't been in the field, I have no reports on birds right now,
but I can tell you that I'm going to see a Sooty Tern tonight...
and you can too, if you come to the Knoxville chapter of TOS meeting
at 7:30. Our guest speaker is Troy Ettel, State Ornithologist with
TWRA. He's going to talk to us about historic populations of
declining bird species in Tennessee. I hope to see many of you
there.
Charlie
=====
**************************************************
Charlie Muise, Senior Naturalist
Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont
Townsend, TN lat 35 deg, 38'23" long 83 deg, 41'22"
"Do something. If it works, do it again. If it does not work, do something
else. But above all else: Do Something." (Franklin Delano Roosevelt)
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