The trouble with birds is, they fly! Well, yes, I know it's what birds are supposed to do, but the trouble is, they turn up in all sorts of places where they aren't supposed to. Most mammals, bats excepted, stay pretty much close to home, but no, not birds. So, who cares? Well, people trying to determine ice-age distributions, that's who.
All sorts of birds show up in fossil faunas, but did a bird live
nearby? Or did some adventuresome idiot of a bird meet the fate that so often happens
to wanderers in unfamiliar territory. The northern Chihuahuan Desert is well stocked
with fossil bird faunas, but what does the presence of a magpie at Shelter Cave, at the
south end of the Organ Mountains really mean? It's true that magpies now are at
home no nearer than northern New Mexico, but a friend assures me that he saw one flying
above I-10 a few years ago. Thank heaven for our stick-in-the-mud mammals from the same
faunas—they, at least, seldom leave home without good reason.
Contributor: Arthur H. Harris, Laboratory for Environmental Biology, Centennial Museum, University of Texas at El Paso.
Desert Diary is a joint production of the Centennial Museum and KTEP National Public Radio at the University of Texas at El Paso.