When this was discussed earlier this fall, many of us believed the very rich wild food crops were responsible. We failed to also account for the unusual weather.
Together, I believe both factors kept birds north until the turn of weather over the last two weeks. Concomitantly with that shift many people in the Finger Lakes are reporting increase in their feeder birds. Here, that is certainly the case. We were overflown by many species thanks to weather earlier but now we are seeing sort of a late migration of northern birds into our area. Some species, like winter finches, we still don't expect to see mainly due to that large crop up north. Time will tell. Hope you both see an increase soon. Merry Christmas all! John --- John and Sue Gregoire Field Ornithologists Kestrel Haven Migration Observatory 5373 Fitzgerald Rd Burdett, NY 14818 42.443508000, -76.758202000 On 2017-12-18 03:28, Sally Eller wrote: > We are experiencing the same small number of feeder birds as Glenn reports. I > would also guess we have about 20% of our usual number of feeder birds. > > Has this been discussed here recently? If so, I apologize that I missed it. > > Is it possible that West Nile Virus is affecting our feeder birds? I know > that at the Finger Lakes Raptor Center in Lodi there have been many, many > raptors afflicted with WNV. I keep wondering if it affecting our songbirds, > woodpeckers, crows, etc. A quick Google search brought me to this article. > http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/11/west-nile-virus-still-wiping-out-birds-across-north-america > > > Indeed, we do have our usual chickadee flock, but even our usually high > numbers of Juncos are scarce this winter. > > If it is WNV, what should we be doing with our feeding stations? > > Sally Eller > West shore, Cayuga Lake > Ovid/Romulus > > On Sun, Dec 17, 2017 at 9:06 AM, Glenn Wilson <wil...@stny.rr.com> wrote: > >> We have 3 Chickadees, 2 Hairy Woodpeckers, 1 Tufted Titmouse, 2 Cardinals, >> and 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker. This is about 20% of normal. I find it hard to >> believe the extra food available in the Wild is causing this. >> >> Glenn Wilson >> Endicott, NY >> www.WilsonsWarbler.com [1] >> >> -- >> >> Cayugabirds-L List Info: >> http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME [2] >> http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES [3] >> http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm >> [4] >> >> ARCHIVES: >> 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html [5] >> 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds [6] >> 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html [7] >> >> Please submit your observations to eBird: >> http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ [8] >> >> -- > > -- > CAYUGABIRDS-L LIST INFO: > Welcome and Basics [9] > Rules and Information [10] > Subscribe, Configuration and Leave [11] > ARCHIVES: > The Mail Archive [5] > Surfbirds [6] > BirdingOnThe.Net [7] > PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR OBSERVATIONS TO EBIRD [8]! > -- Links: ------ [1] http://www.WilsonsWarbler.com [2] http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME [3] http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES [4] http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm [5] http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html [6] http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds [7] http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html [8] http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ [9] http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME [10] http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES [11] http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm -- 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/ --
