99 years ago today the passenger pigeon succumbed to extinction when its last surviving individual died a few feet from where this photograph was taken, in Cincinnati Zoo. A few decades earlier there had been billions of this bird flying around the forests of eastern North America. And so next year will be the centenary…
Tag: cincinnati
Saturday 7
I’ll tell you what day it is. On this day, 98 years ago, at 1pm local time, 6pm (I think) UK time, there was a dull thud in Cincinnati. The last passenger pigeon in the world, called Martha by her keepers in Cincinnati Zoo, had died and fallen off her perch. It was the end…
Are all Americans stupid?
I am, of course, only referring to American bird species. I ask the question because of a conversation I had back at the Bird Fair but first let me tell you about the Carolina parakeet. The Carolina parakeet was a native north American parrot that was widespread in the east of the USA when the…
Homage to the Passenger Pigeon
I did a strange thing in a zoo today. My days are beginning to fall into a certain order. Wake at 5am after a good night’s sleep and without an alarm, check emails (‘cos Europe is already up), shower, move stuff into the car and then hit the road. And so I headed North from…