Air Date: Week of September 25, 2015

Willow Ptarmigan (Photo: Patty McGann, Flickr CC)

We the People own nearly 850 million square acres of US public land and ocean, and as BirdNote’s Mary McCann points out, these spaces provide vital habitat for over a thousand diverse species — from the Bachman’s Sparrow in the Southeast to Alaska’s Willow ptarmigan.

Transcript

CURWOOD: Well, the Bald Eagle that thrilled Derrick Jackson is an endangered species success story, sufficiently recovered to be delisted 7 years ago, but the Interior Department has decided that the Greater Sage Grouse does not need ESA listing. Its survival will rely instead on specially protected private and public lands.
And on public lands across the country, you’ll find an amazing variety of avians, as Mary McCann points out in today’s BirdNote.

http://birdnote.org/show/voices-our-national-public-lands

BirdNote®
Voices of Our National Public Lands
[Bachman’s Sparrow song]

MCCANN: The diversity and richness of bird voices across the United States! Wow!
In the Southeast, at Florida’s Ocala National Forest, a Bachman’s Sparrow sings a lovely, clear whistled song.

[Bachman’s Sparrow song]

In the Midwest, at Rice Lake State Park in Minnesota, a Yellow-headed Blackbird offers its gruff repertoire of growls and toots. [Call of Yellow-headed Blackbird]

After dark in the Southwest, at Arizona’s Bill Williams River National Wildlife Refuge, a Black Rail utters its unmistakable call. [Call of Black Rail]

And in Alaska’s Denali National Park, a Willow Ptarmigan chuckles loudly across the tundra. [Call of Willow Ptarmigan]

What remarkable variety in these four bird voices, a variety matched by their geographic locales. But all of these places have something vital in common. They are part of our National Public Lands, lands owned by us, the American people. Comprising nearly 850 million acres of land and 3.5 million square miles of ocean, our public lands and waters provide habitats vital to more than 1,000 species of birds. Now that’s something to crow about! [Call of Willow Ptarmigan]
I’m Mary McCann
###

Written by Bob Sundstrom
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Song of Bachman Sparrow [166561] recorded by R. Faucett; song of Yellow-headed Blackbird [105686] by G.A. Keller; Black Rail [56890] recorded by G.A. Keller; ambient drawn from Willow Ptarmigan [50031] recorded at Denali by L.J. Peyton.
BirdNote’s theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson
© 2013 Tune In to Nature.org September 2013 Narrator: Mary McCann

www.publiclandsday.org
http://www.neefusa.org/programs/index.htm
Bachman’s Sparrow © Joanne Kamo http://www.pbase.com/jitams/image/113389755
Yellow-headed Blackbird - Joseph Higbee FCC https://www.flickr.com/photos/21876608@N02/14009277500
Northern Hawk-Owl © Gregg Thompson
Willow Ptarmigan - Patty McGann FCC https://www.flickr.com/photos/pattymc/9060981651
http://birdnote.org/show/voices-our-national-public-lands

CURWOOD: For photos of the Willow Ptarmigan and all these other birds including the Bald Eagle, whistle on over to our website, loe dot org.

 

Links

Learn more about birds on public lands on BirdNote