The Bruce Peninsula Bird Observatory reports that......
“It has been a
disappointing, slow-paced week for us at Cabot Head, straining our
eyes and ears to detect the
sparse birds, with very little success.” Their banding totals
being but about a third of their normal volume, my own less
definitive observations have be even more startling. They say that
“It is not a deficiency in our senses, then, missing secretive and
quiet birds, but a mere absence, objectively reflected in very few
birds captured in the nets.”
Here somewhat south of the peninsular
in the Chatsworth area my normal steady influx of various birds to
our forested hideaway and window feeders the
absence of birds is both remarkable and concerning. We all know
that in certain weather conditions our visitors will go hide for a
bit until things are more to their liking and there are seasonal
changes to those we see at various times of the year but in 20 years
of enjoying our daily visitors at this location I do not recall it
ever being so devoid of our feather friends for so long. What is
going on, is it climate change, local conditions, migration pattern
changes or what?
Up until around a month or two ago the
daily visitors to our feeder included a multitude of Downy &
Hairy Woodpeckers (at least 6 or 8 individuals) many Chickadees
(estimated more than 10) and several Grosbeaks and Cardinals with a
selection of finches dropping by a little less often but seen quite
often. The mixed bush that crowds the house nearly always had birds
fluttering around making their presence know even if not seen when
hiding in the leaves, the activity rarely diminished from early dawn
to fading dusk.
Now all I see is ONE Downy and ONE
Hairy woodpecker and possibly a couple of Chickadees, even the Doves
that always sat in the apple tree occasionally coming to sit on the
top of the feeder to see what all the fuss was about have
disappeared. The one female Grosbeak who always attacked her
reflection in the window glass and the car mirror seems to have found
another attraction and left that 'other bird' in peace.
As I said before the difference from
'normal' is very obvious and rather concerning, I miss our feathered
friends, they are so much more entertaining to watch than that bloody
TV which seems to be the very poor alternative!
I hope they return soon........
New data.....
Not directly related to the local 'temporary?' loss of visitors but....
Over the past half-century, North America has lost more than a quarter of its entire bird population, or around 3 billion birds. "We saw this tremendous net loss across the entire bird community," it's a 30% loss in the total number of breeding birds." The results show that more than 90% of the loss can be attributed to just a dozen bird families, including sparrows, warblers, blackbirds and finches. https://www.npr.org/2019/09/19/762090471/north-america-has-lost-3-billion-birds-scientists-say
New data.....
Not directly related to the local 'temporary?' loss of visitors but....
Over the past half-century, North America has lost more than a quarter of its entire bird population, or around 3 billion birds. "We saw this tremendous net loss across the entire bird community," it's a 30% loss in the total number of breeding birds." The results show that more than 90% of the loss can be attributed to just a dozen bird families, including sparrows, warblers, blackbirds and finches. https://www.npr.org/2019/09/19/762090471/north-america-has-lost-3-billion-birds-scientists-say
