(The New Jersey record is assumed to be ship assisted, as are the several different west coast appearances, particularly multiple records on Long Beach, California, which is a major port.) I’d never seen one outside its normal range despite some appearances in Wisconsin and Minnesota, until 2017, when one turned up in Two Harbors. In January 2015, I saw a few in Quincy, Illinois.Įven though their range here in America is so restricted, Eurasian Tree Sparrows have popped up in at least 10 states and 3 provinces. In 2014, I saw and photographed the sparrows where they actually belong, in Austria and Hungary. Even the most reliable feeder birds come and go, so to improve my chances, Susan’s husband David spray-painted a sign, “ETS for Laura.” And the moment I stepped into their backyard, voila! Louis except for a brief stop on the way home from Texas in July, when I was in a big hurry. I’ve stayed with her several times and have never once missed the sparrow.ĭuring my Big Year in 2013, I wasn’t able to stop in St. In 2006, I became fast friends with a wonderful woman named Susan Eaton who lives in St. We stopped talking about sports when the Eurasian Tree Sparrows returned to his feeder. Suddenly I realized the oppressive melancholy in the air was real, this morning after the Cardinals’ heartbreaking loss right there in St. (As a Cubs fan, I hardly ever had reason to notice the post season.) The night before, the Curse of the Bambino had ended, and Boston was celebrating their first World Series win since 1918. Grant was not running), but then switched to sports and the World Series. As we waited for them to return, we mostly chatted about the upcoming election (Ulysses S. I reached my friend’s house a few minutes after his flock of Eurasian Tree Sparrows had left for a while. It was creepy, but I could not explain it, especially because I was so filled with joyful anticipation of seeing this longed for lifer. Louis on the expressway, the entire city seemed weighted down with a palpable gloom. I’m not the kind of person who senses auras, but on this morning as I entered St. Louis, where a guy on the national Bird Chat listserv had invited me to see it at his feeder. So on the morning of October 28, 2004, I made it to St. Now when I thumbed through my field guide, the birds I had not seen stood out glaringly. By 1999, my life list reached the magic number I’d set as a goal when I started out: 600 species. Little by little over the next quarter century, I saw most of the birds in my field guide. Louis on our way to Texas in December 1978, and we spent Christmas morning walking cluelessly around a few neighborhoods without luck. I wasn’t quite clear what he was talking about until I became a birder and read my Peterson and Golden Guides cover to cover. Russ and I stopped in St. My professor optimistically thought they’d be hopping around the zoo grounds with House Sparrows, but he could not pick one out. I learned about Eurasian Tree Sparrows four years before I became a birder, when my University of Illinois biology class took a field trip to the St. Louis for a time, too, though that was before the Eurasian Tree Sparrows were brought there.) (I suppose it's also a coincidence that Ulysses S. Louis Cardinals even existed, but if these little immigrants had any interest in baseball, they’d of course root for the red birds. Louis Browns until 1900, so the bird was established well before the St. The baseball team didn’t exist until 1881, and was called the St. range of Eurasian Tree Sparrows coincides fairly well with that of fans of the St. It's probably just a coincidence that the U.S. For over a century, the species stayed within a narrow range in northeastern Missouri, west-central Illinois, and southeastern Iowa. The House Sparrow spread like wildfire, but the only introduction of the Eurasian Tree Sparrow that “took” was this one. Both that species and its close relative the House Sparrow were introduced in many places throughout the continent during the nineteenth century. Louis release not only survived and bred successfully but gradually become established: the Eurasian Tree Sparrow. Most of the released birds didn’t survive long in this unfamiliar land. Some individuals managed to mate, and some pairs lived long enough to breed, but for virtually all the species brought here like this, any descendants died out within a few generations.īut individuals of one species in that St. Louis, Missouri, part of a widespread effort to introduce birds from other continents to North America. Grant was president (I mention this only to give a bit of historical context and because Grant was my favorite president, though neither that fact nor Grant himself have any bearing on this), a shipment of European songbirds imported from Germany arrived in St.
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