Further Afield

I keep it out in the garage.l might use it only once a year.so it tends to get buried.For this column, I dug it out from under a pile of oily rags, after having jo tied the weed whacker, lawn darts.and croquet set out of the way first.After a quick dusting and a few calibrations using my multivariate chrono-transducer, it was purring like a kitten.The ''it'' I refer to is, of course, my time machine.Others might use their time machines to investigate a particularly intriguing period in history.to use advance knowledge to make a killing on the stock market, or to resolve a lingering "what might have been."I, however.use mine to revisit the historical Ohio birding scene at exactly 10-year intervals.Go figure.Elsewhere in this issue, Bill Whan covers the winter 2002-03 period: with the assi tance of my time machine (and, I admit, through the guidance of various historical references), I sugge t we begin our journey with the December through February period of:Winter 1852-53 Millard Fillmore.our 13"' President, keeps watch over 31 states.Under his administration, the Coinage Act of 1853 is adopted on Febnwry 21. a/lou•ing $3.00 gold pieces lo be minted.The windshield of our time machine usually fogs over with any rapid descent into the past.and this excursion is no exception.onetheles , a quick swipe of the window with my sleeve creates a smalJ opening to the out ide world-a world.apparently, when bird observers were as scarce as $3.00 gold pieces are today.However, speaking of gold.we discover that in 1853 Mr. M. C. Read writes that ••[t]he Rev. Sam'I Wright of Toledo, now deceased, wrote me in the winter of 1852 that he then had a young bird ... which was quite tame, and a very interesting pet.It fully answered the description of the ' Ring-tailed Eagle'.''Today we know this as an immature golden eagle.Read continues "After the death of Mr. Wright [the bird] was promised to the writer.but escaping from confinement [and] accustomed to only the voice of its old master, it could not be recaptured, and at last account was still lingering about the neighborhood of the city.''We' ll move on though, to .. . Winter 1862-63Preside111 Lincoln is Commander in Chief of the Army of the Potomac.an army ll'IWSL' a/lack against Gen Robert E. l ees entrenched Confederate forces at /'rcderichburg.VA on December I 3 pro,•es disastrous.This does not prevent I 11/('(JI// /mm signing the Emancipation Proclamation on January I. First fogged-up "1nd1m s hampered our view, now we must deal with the confusion brought on by thl• " lo• of war."We can't seem to find any significant bird sightings during this \\ 11ttc1 pc1 iod; presumably most potential birders are involved in wartime efforts. The Ohio Cardinal FURTHER AFIELDHowever, just before our time machine comes to a complete stop at December 1862.we detect the following report from the previous July.According to William S. Sullivant, " informed ornithologist" and "eminent botanist,'' ••a flock numbering from twenty-five to thirty made their appearance in the Capitol square [of Columbus] and remained in the elm trees ... for a couple of hours.greatly to his enjoyment and the delight of numerous small boys."Presumably most of us would have been delighted also, as this was a flock of25-30 Carolina parakeets. Winter 1872-73The Presidency of U(vsses S. Gram is rocked by the Credit Mobilier scandal, and two members of the U.S. House of Representatives are fonnally censured on February 27.There seems little reason for us to tarry here, as concern over that Credit Mobilier thing seems to have knocked the birding world into a stupor as well.The only report we can find during the period is of two black-capped c hickadees collected in Cincinnati by Charles Oury.These specimens appear to have gone missing since then, so 2 t • -century birders have no way to confirm these extreme southern records.Keep in miad that black-capped chickadee is a Review Species in Kentucky, j ust aero s the Ohio River from Cincinnati.Col~mbia and sign a treaty with the V.S. on their own.President Tedd) Roose' ell watches with interest.Things begin to pick up here.ln Scioto and Pike counties, W. F. Henninger deems barn owl, Bewick's wren, and chipping sparrow as .. common" winter species.Loggerhead shrike and osprey are '•fairly common", and golden Vol. 26, No. 2 • Winter 2002-03 67 Further Afield

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