Bird Chat

What the marker at the church here in Charleston doesn't mention is that Rev. Bachman has a sparrow and a now presumably extinct warbler named after him, as well as a few other plants and animals.  It also doesn't have space to mention that two of his daughters married two of Audubon's sons.  There is a Wurdemann buried in the old graveyard as well and I am trying to determine if it may relate to the Wurdemann's Heron.

Ray Swagerty----Charleston, SC

Interesting! How did you find out about the bits that weren't included on the plaque, Ray?

Regarding the name Würdemann's Heron , The Audubon Sociiety Encyclopedia of North American Birds by John K. Terres is usually a pretty good source for origins and meanings of bird names, so I looked it up there and found this:

First, the reader is referred to the entry under Ward's Heron. The name Ward's Heron was given to that Great Blue Heron variant (on average paler and larger than the usual GBH)  in 1882 by Robert Ridgway in honor of someone named Charles W. Ward, about whom no information is given.

Würdemann's Heron is a variant of Ward's Heron that has an entirely white head and crest. A man named Spencer F. Baird (would he be the Baird in the name Baird's Sandpiper? Yes!) described it in 1858 and considered it to be a distinct species. It was later thought to be a hybrid between Ward's Heron and the Great White Heron, but someone named Palmer in 1962 said it's merely a color morph of Ward's Heron that occurs usually only in extreme South Florida where Great White Herons also occur. The issue of species, subspecies and color morphs for the less common colors of Great Blues doesn't appear to be settled yet, according to this entry in Sibley's blog:

 http://sibleyguides.blogspot.com/2007/11/great-white-heron-not-just-color-morph.html

As for Würdemann, Baird named that color bird for Gustavus Würdemann of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. Is that who's buried in the graveyard?

Hey Betsy, I have missed your posts!  Yours too Ray!  What a breath of fresh air.  Thanks for posting the info, both of you.

Thanks Dave.  It is good to be back up.

Betsy:

The Audubon connection with Rev. Bachman is actually common knowledge around these parts, (besides, I'm Lutheran and Bachman is legendary).  It is also covered though in a wonderful book called Whose Bird? which covers in historic detail all of the birds named in the English language, for people.  I don't think that it will be the same Wurdemann though.  All the biggies came through here in olden days, Audubon, Bartram, Lawson, Linnaeus, Catesby, and Porcher, Lining, Bachman and Poinsett lived here.  It used to be a hotbed of discovery.

Ray Swagerty----Charleston, SC