Hi! Over 30years of banding, migration and population study here and we experienced and ever increasing paucity of birds. About 15 years ago I wrote a report citing these losses. While many can be linked to loss of habitat mainly due to factory farming, that didn't account for the lack of song. We prognosticated at the time that populations within species were undergoing a drastic diminishment.That has since been shown to be even worse than we guessed ( based on American Bird Conservancy data sets).
A result most noticeable was in song. With fewer competitors, birds in lesser numbers arrive on native land and , if they find it still existent, establish a territory. With little or no competition, the territorial song is short lived -after all, why expend energy needlessly? Defense of territory is seldom needed so in season song is greatly diminished. That doesn't mean it stops entirely but certainly far less than what we new 50, 40 or 30 years ago. Fast forward to the crazy migration we experienced this spring. Expected species have still not checked in and we guess they either overflew or were content to our south. We have the same experience with Veery here and Wood Thrush has been declining steadily. Least Flycatcher, Warbling Vireo are all missing and the fancy Thrushes once a stopover certainty haven't been seen for several years. Yesterday, we finally had a single Pewee. On the positive side we are inundated with Grosbeaks, Purple Finch, Great-crested Flycatchers, cuckoos and others that are normally here in much smaller numbers. Looking South to the greater DC area, many of these species are still there and that's abnormal. Check the ADK reports and they are also having a strange year although I've not seen any thoughts on the subject from that area. The short answer is an unusual migration window with lots of weather effect, rapidly declining populations creating an environment where our old expectations are no longer valid. I liked it much better several decades ago. We have stopped banding passerines and happy we did as the disappointment would be even greater. Best, John --- John and Sue Gregoire Field Ornithologists Kestrel Haven Migration Observatory 5373 Fitzgerald Rd Burdett, NY 14818 42.443508000, -76.758202000 On 2018-06-18 15:45, W. Larry Hymes wrote: > I have noticed, as have others, that the woods have not been as plentiful > with bird song as normal. On my recent walks at Upper Buttermilk I have been > very disappointed in the total absence of Wood Thrush, Veery, and Scarlet > Tanager. By this time in past years I've always have several of these birds. > On my most recent walk (Friday) I was wonderfully surprised to hear 2 Wood > Thrush and 2-3 each of Veery and Scarlet Tanager. Why the sudden > "reappearance"?? I know I'm going to be criticized for asking, but could > some birds (species) still be migrating in? If not, then why did they > finally "show up"? Some could argue they were busy with nesting. But I've > never experienced birds remaining completely mum during the nesting season. > Another argument could be that they are now moving around after the first > brood. I doubt that would explain the numbers of these species I had all of > a sudden plopping down in Upper Buttermilk? By the way, we picnicked at > Upper Treman yesterday and bird song was relatively infrequent. Do any of you have any thoughts on this subject?? > > Larry > > -- > > ================================ > W. Larry Hymes > 120 Vine Street, Ithaca, NY 14850 > (H) 607-277-0759, w...@cornell.edu > ================================ > > -- > > Cayugabirds-L List Info: > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm > > ARCHIVES: > 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html > 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds > 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html > > Please submit your observations to eBird: > http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ > > -- -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
