By D'Vera Cohn

Archives Reprint

   The Washington Post

    WASHINGTON - When David Johnston stands by the Potomac on a summer morning, he prefers to imagine the river as it would have been on a winter day more than 200 years ago.

    In the early 1800s, it would have been packed with canvassback ducks, so many a hunter easily could bring back a barrelful destined for dinner tables in well-off households.

    Duck, though, was only one of many birds that Virginians consumed.

    "They ate everything," said Johnston, a Fairfax County resident who examined hundreds of archaeological records and historical accounts for his recent book, "The History of Ornithology in Virginia." "Robins, bluebirds and blue jays - many songbirds that we would not think of eating today."

    Johnston makes the case that Virginia may be the birthplace of ornithology in America because it is where many common birds and their habits were first named and chronicled. Bird study in Virginia, it turns out, has links not only to the olonial-era diet, but also to the leisure habits of U.S. presidents, mistaken olonial-era beliefs about geography, and the design of women's jewelry boxes, among many other topics.

    Virginian Thomas Jefferson kept a mockingbird in a cage at the White House and had a broad interest in the natural world. Johnston, in his book, notes that Jefferson is "unique among our presidents in having known more about birds than any other presidential candidate at the time, and he might well inspire other busy men of the government to seek nature as an occasional refuge from public life."

    Colonial Virginians were thrilled by hummingbirds, whose shiny feathers were used on jewelry boxes and other containers. To avoid damaging the feathers, the tiny birds were felled with blasts of sand or water.

    Hummingbirds are still plentiful in Virginia, but their feathers are no longer plucked for decoration. Johnston's book traces the evolution of attitudes and laws that protect the birds once seen as objects to be used or eaten.

    Now vanished from Virginia are Carolina parakeets, which were shot as agricultural pests or taken as pets before they became extinct nationwide 80 years ago. Colonial-era Virginians were fascinated by the bright-colored birds, which some mistook for parrots. Many early colonists, Johnston said, thought the birds came from Asia. One account said their presence gives hope that the "South Sea" is nearby, a mistaken but widely held notion of geography.

    Fossils, archaeological records and other documents show that many birds seen today in Virginia have prehistoric ancestors. Wild turkey, ruffed grouse and northern bobwhite quail remains dating back 10,000 years have been found in caves. So have birds once found in the state when it had a cooler climate, such as rock ptarmigan and spruce grouse.

    Well-known naturalists have studied the state's birds since olonial days, among them Roger Tory Peterson, whose field guides popularized the hobby of birding. Peterson entered the Army at Fort Belvoir in 1943, where Johnston says he persuaded his superiors to reroute a drill march to avoid a lark's nest.

    Johnston, 77, got the idea for his book during nearly two decades teaching ornithology at the University of Virginia's Mountain Lake research station. There he came upon century-old records of bird sightings, and was troubled by how many species no longer could be seen because timber harvesting had eliminated their living space.

    Nowadays, he is critical of the cutting of trees he witnesses throughout the Washington suburbs as development paves over former forests. Colonial-era explorers wrote of bear and buffalo in the forests of Fairfax County. Johnston said his own back yard used to fill with scarlet tanagers and the call of the wood thrush. No more.

    "Birders in particular are very concerned about the degree to which habitats are being destroyed," he said. "The developers have got all the laws in their favor."

   AP-NY-07-14-04 1455E

Let any elected or appointed official know what you think and how you feel by CLICKING HERE.