Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
fairway. Play stopped as all the golfers marveled at the national bird with
whom they shared space. As I headed to the clubhouse, I racked up chipping
sparrows, American goldi nches, American robins, and mourning doves
from the grassy understory and red-bellied, pileated, and downy woodpeck-
ers from the trees. Associated with the many woodpeckers were those that
lived on the results of the woodpeckers' industrious lifestyles—secondary
cavity nesters, including eastern bluebirds, tree swallows, eastern pewees,
and white-breasted nuthatches. When i nally a scissor-tailed l ycatcher
l oated overhead, its ten-inch-long tail plumes dancing in the air, I i gured it
was time to sign my scorecard and call it a day. The golf pro wasn't impressed
with my score, but he was tolerant and pleased to have indulged my strange
request to bird his course.
I asked the pro whether he did anything to promote birds at Balmoral,
and he answered “no.” He knew some birds needed dead trees, but that was
not permitted. He wanted aesthetically pleasing, live trees. Weeds, even the
dandelions so favored by the goldi nches, were constantly fought and elimi-
nated. Fortunately for the birds, and the players who clearly enjoyed sharing
the course with them, this requirement seemed not to matter. Although the
pro focused on the fairways and greens, the birds thrived in the rough. Here
there was room for people and birds and their mutual interaction.
Balmoral is not alone in simultaneously providing recreational and bird
habitat. Nearly everywhere, golf courses increase the local diversity of birds.
In southeast Queensland, Australia, golf links support an average of 450 indi-
vidual birds of more than one hundred species, especially waterbirds. Par-
rots, such as the ubiquitous rainbow lorikeet and abundant sulfur-crested
cockatoo and crimson rosella, are also common there. In Quebec, Canada,
courses equal the local diversity found in nearby natural parks. British, South
African, and Italian courses all support bird diversity exceeding nearby sub-
urban and agricultural settings. Throughout the United States, courses
