Passenger Pigeon and splats

The last record of a wild Passenger Pigeon was March 24, 1900. In fact, rewards were offered by the American Ornithologists’ Union for finding a nest. The effort was futile. A captive bird named Martha, died at the Cincinnati Zoological Garden on September 1, 1914. She was 29 years old.

Billions of the Passenger Pigeons would turn the sky black in early years of North America. The witnesses said the pigeons passing by would extend for miles. Even trees would break from the weight of pigeons. Truly, it must have been quite the sight. In 1878, the pigeons were killed at a rate of 50,000 a day. This continued for nearly five months. By the early 1890’s the passenger pigeon had almost completely disappeared. They could not sustain a population with so few in numbers. “The one valuable result of the extinction of the passenger pigeon was that it aroused public interest in the need for strong conservation laws.” Source: The Passenger Pigeon

Now you are wondering why I brought this up? Yesterday’s post featured the butterflies. What I did not tell you about this small little area on the roadside, the majority were the Horace’s Duskywings. However, their numbers were less than a dozen. So all the others only had one or two of each species at most. Furthermore, I must (unhappily) report this is most I have seen in one place in a long while. Numbers of all insects are way down in my observations. Now I must warn you from this point on in the post, it is all about splats and the splat photos.

Furthermore, maybe like after the Passenger Pigeon disappearance, humans will wake up to be conservation-minded for the insects before it is too late. Optimistically, fingers and toes crossed that the message gets out! Stop monoculture yards! Help an insect, plant natives!

Monarch butterflies saw a resurgence in Mexico

Keep looking!

The more you know, the more you see and the more you see, the more you know.