"We by-and-by discovered...a pair of those
splendid birds, the Ivory-billed Woodpeckers
(Picus principalis). They were engaged in
rapping some tall dead pines, in a dense part of
the forest, which rang with their loud notes."
—Philip Henry Gosse, British naturalist, who recorded his
observations of Dallas County in 1838.
Exploring an abandoned settlement, like
the one here at Old Cahawba, evokes an
inescapable sense of loss. Humans aren't
the only community members missing
from this landscape. Some of Old
Cahawba's most stunning wild inhabitants
are gone as well, driven toward extinction
by settlement activities.
When settlers moved into Alabama's
Black Belt in the early 1800s, the ivory-
billed woodpecker's brilliant crimson crest
and black-and-white plumage brightened
old-growth bottomland hardwood forests.
Chattering flocks of Carolina parakeets
swept through the canebrakes, and the high,
buzzy trill of Bachman's warblers pierced
the forest canopy. These sights and sounds
no longer grace Old Cahawba's landscape.
Protecting Alabama's Wildlife
The Alabama State Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP) identifies 28 of the state's
more than 350 native bird species as 'species of greatest conservation need."
It details a plan
to prevent further decline of these vulnerable species by
protecting the habitats they depend upon. At Old Cahawba, the Alabama
Historical Commission is using the SWAP to combine preservation and
conservation. Alabama landowners can use this plan to help protect not only
birds, but scores of amphibians, reptiles, mammals, fish, and invertebrates.
Carolina Parakeet
"...the Parakeets are destroyed in great numbers, for whilst
busily engaged in plucking off the fruits or tearing the
grain from the stacks, the husbandman approaches them
with perfect ease, and commits great slaughter among
them." — John James Audubon, 1840.
Flocks of Carolina parakeets—this country's only
native parrot—once roosted together in tree cavities at
night and searched out fruits and seeds by day. Their
droppings spread seeds throughout the bottomland
forests, significantly altering the tree species that grew
there. The bright-colored birds devoured settlers' crops,
a habit that led to their extinction by 1920.
Ivory-Billed Woodpecker
This largest of North American woodpeckers—20
inches from head to tail—once inhabited bottomland
hardwood forests from Texas to North Carolina.
In dead and dying trees, it hammered deep holes
to excavate beetle larvae and to nest and roost. Big
excavators
need big trees, and the species' decline
mirrored the clearing of old-growth southeastern
forests. Researchers sparked hope in 2005 with reports
that the "Holy Grail Bird," believed extinct, may still
inhabit remote woods in Arkansas and Florida.
Bachman's Warbler
Though Bachman's warblers nested near the ground,
dense thickets of cane, palmetto, shrubs, and vines
concealed their broods from predators. Canebrakes
once overspread the margins between river and land
around Old Cahawba and throughout southeastern
riverways. Scientists hold out hope that Bachman's
warblers may still inhabit remote pockets of their
former range. Though no breeding pairs have been
recorded in the U.S. since the 1960s, scientists have
made several recent sightings in the bird's Cuban
wintering grounds.
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