Hi all, I was out every day in May and it seemed to me that while the migration was not as good as usual, it was not dramatically different either. I did the one Breeding Bird Survey I have on 9 June and it seemed comparable to most years. However, I haven't compiled the data yet to compare the numbers and see if my impression is correct or not.
Cheers, Willie D'Anna Wilson, Niagara County, NY -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Will Raup Sent: Monday, June 17, 2013 4:08 PM To: NNY Birds Cc: 'NYSBIRDS-L' Subject: RE: NNYBirds: RE: [nysbirds-l] Minimal Migration or Population Decline? Joan & all, One reason why you haven't seen much discussion is that things are variable across the state. You (and others) have noted a lack of Indigo Bunting reports, yet I point to Joe Giunta's post on this list that Indigo Bunting was at nearly every stop while birding the Hudson Valley. So which is it? Are they abundant or missing? Not all neo-tropical migrants are missing or where lacking in any way (in at least Eastern New York). Yellow Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Baltimore Oriole, where extremely abundant through May. Flycatchers were somewhat hard to find, especially Olive-sided but that is a continuation of long term declines. Eastern Wood Pewee's were still migrating through into Early June and personally it was one of my best springs for Canada Warbler, again they were late moving.. Memorial Day and later. Thrushes have been mixed, Veery has been lower than expected, but this comes after several years of being nearly the dominate thrush in Eastern New York. Population cycles? Swainson's Thrush was late as well, I had one in my yard on Memorial Day, one of the latest I've had personally in the Hudson Valley. Reports from the high peaks of Catskills in Greene County show a very healthy population of both Swainson's and Bicknell's Thrushes, Blackpoll Warbler and Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. Ruby-crowned Kinglet has also been reported in good numbers from Hunter Mountain. This was also one of the best springs in the Albany area for the so called "spruce budworm" warblers, especially Cape May Warbler. Both Tennessee and Bay-breasted Warblers were reported in good numbers as well! I do agree that bird song is down.... but what birds I am seeing seem to be busy nesting, lots of birds carrying food to their young, lots of fledgling birds hopping around as well. My personal theory is that many birds were late arriving this year, this cut down on the amount of time they had in the past for setting up territories and courtship and they seemed in many cases to simply skip to nesting. Typically in early July we see a second wave of bird song as broods #2 get started. I'm curious to see if some of the species that have been MIA so far, suddenly turn up right where we expect them to be (or not). I'm curious to hear what others experience has been this spring, especially from other parts of the state. Good Birding! Will Raup Albany, NY To: [email protected] CC: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] From: [email protected] Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2013 15:35:17 -0400 Subject: NNYBirds: RE: [nysbirds-l] Minimal Migration or Population Decline? Hi Chris/All, I am out every day and I have not noticed any improvement. As I walk through the forest (or bogs), the lack of birds is all I can think about. I am surprised this has not been a dominant discussion on our NYS Birds list serve. It is so disturbing and everyone is anxiously awaiting BBS data for this year - but of course roadside surveys don't work well for many species. I can barely find a Lincoln's Sparrow (I jump up and down when I hear one now) - a species that is normally abundant in our Adirondack bogs. Canada Warbler numbers are way down. I have also noticed the same lack of species that you listed (although, I have not noticed a lack of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds in northern NY). Indigo Bunting is another species that is hard to find. Scarlet Tanager, Veery..I could keep going. Chris Rimmer, Director of the Vermont Center for Ecostudies, emailed about the lack of neotropical migrants in e-central VT, and he is hearing the same thing from others - how quiet the forests are this spring. He has noticed that Swainson's Thrush numbers are down up on Mount Mansfield in VT. I've been finding a few more on dawn tours up Whiteface Mountain since the Memorial Day Weekend 3-foot snowfall melted away. I plan to conduct the Mountain Birdwatch survey of that peak on Thursday, and the results should shed some light on Swainson's Thrush numbers (at least in high elevation), in addition to numbers for all the other species we tally for that survey (I have the data from last year to compare to). Jeff Nadler, photographer, just emailed about a 3 day trip he took to boreal habitat areas in northern VT & NH, which he visits every year, and the lack of birds this year. He noticed not only a lack of neotropical migrants, but also a lack of year-round boreal species! He echoed the same thing everyone is noticing - the forests are "quiet" with no loud dawn chorus. I think we are all wondering the same question: "What happened?" I hope this question will eventually have an answer. Joan Collins Long Lake, NY From: Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, June 17, 2013 11:17 AM To: Joan E. Collins Cc: NYSBIRDS-L; NFC-L; Sean O'Brien Subject: Re: [nysbirds-l] Fwd: Minimal Migration or Population Decline? Thank you, Joan, for this anecdotal evidence. Since it has been a couple of weeks now, I'm curious to know if anyone has noted an improvement in their local area birding spots, or if it has been more of the same. For me, I've noted a serious lack of typical neighborhood birds that used to be a regular part of the acoustic atmosphere: Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Baltimore Oriole and Red-eyed Vireo, just to name a few. I've also noticed a lack of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds this year - usually, they are zipping around and chittering in the neighborhood. Not so this year, yet anyway. If this is region-wide, I'd think it critically important to collect as much data as possible to help monitor or track this seeming dearth of activity. I expect this fall migration to be fairly telling, if there was a pop-ulation-wide impact of some kind. Sincerely, Chris T-H [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] __._,_.___ Reply via web post Reply to sender Reply to group Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (1) RECENT ACTIVITY: Visit Your Group All postings to Northern_NY_Birds are protected by copyright law. 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