History and Habitat

There are few cases when manmade construction actually preserves habitat, but on occasion it does happen. On a recent visit to Fort Amsterdam, I had the pleasure of seeing brown pelicans building their nests on the nearby cliffs. Although it’s impossible to know for sure, it definitely seems likely that if there were no ruins of Fort Amsterdam, the area would have been developed for tourism and the pelicans wouldn’t be nesting there. A win-win for history and natural history on the island.

Little Bay
Brown Pelican (<em>Pelecanus occidentalis</em>) at Fort Amsterdam
Brown Pelican (<em>Pelecanus occidentalis</em>) at Fort Amsterdam
Brown Pelican (<em>Pelecanus occidentalis</em>) at Fort Amsterdam
Brown Pelican (<em>Pelecanus occidentalis</em>) at Fort Amsterdam
Brown Pelican (<em>Pelecanus occidentalis</em>) at Fort Amsterdam
Brown Pelican (<em>Pelecanus occidentalis</em>) at Fort Amsterdam
American Kestrel (<em>Falco sparverius caribaearum</em>) at Fort Amsterdam

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 1st, 2012 at 9:28 am and is filed under Arts & Culture, Les Fruits sur la Terre, Pour les Sciences. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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