Pigeon Proposal

Walton Ford, Falling Bough, 2002, watercolor, gouache, pencil and ink on paper. Private collection. Image courtesy the artist and Paul Kasmin Gallery.

I first published this article in July of 2018. It has just 70 views. I’m proud of my hypothesis. I proposed the 9-mile-long forest of dogwood and magnolia that Bartram encountered in 1776 was created by a passenger pigeon roost.

A 9 Mile Long Dogwood and Magnolia Grove in Alabama (circa 1775)

I sent the article to Steve back in 2018, I think. It was reposted and since Steve has a big interest in passenger pigeons I thought to add it here. The forest recycling done by pigeons is an unproven idea as far as I know but it is intriguing that they could be ecosystem engineers on such a scale.

The Walton Ford image is more of a statement than a documentation.

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