Bruce et al.
Late to the conversation, but I thought I'd offer a land-locked perspective that, for earlier passerines, this fall migration seemed unremarkable in volume and diversity this far inland (~170 miles).
My (mostly subjective) observations of the birds and birding this fall in my patches:
- Apparent steady change in species composition... that is, the species I saw in spots I frequented changed daily...I think birds moved steadily through the area;
- there were a few "busy" days with good flights of arriving birds, but no great "Fallout" types of events, so it seems the birds were mostly unimpeded by weather;
- I thought passerine migration peaked a bit early with heavier movement of flycatchers and warblers in August;
- I saw buttloads of juvie swallows, warblers and flycatchers this late summer and early fall leading me to think production was good here and further north;
- Cape May, Tennessee, Bay-breasted Warblers and Philly Vireos all seem incrementally more abundant each fall. It may be they are taking advantage of the spruce budworm outbreaks in Quebec and spots in the Maritimes;
- Unlike most fall migrations, I noticed the Caribou National Weather Service radar "lit up" with nocturnal migrants as frequently-if not more- than the Gray NWS station in September;
- At Caribou, the relative velocity radar images in September showed many more nights with east-to-west directional movement of nocturnal migrants, which was a bit unusual. Its more often a north to south or northeast to southwest flight. If this held across the landscape, this would tend to push birds inland and away from the coast; and
- I am getting older and less keen. My records show I bird less often, cover less ground and apparently, detect less birds than I did ten years ago... (This data is preliminary and under review)
In all, thus far, it has been a good fall migration up here. Not spectacular, but nothing that elicits hand-wringing either.
On a related note, Nick Bonomo in CT has noted easterly winds were predicted for the last days of September and told us how he felt about these here: http://www.shorebirder.com/
Good news is Joaquin is going to litter the coast with avian booty next week and we'll all be cheered up.
Good birding.
Bill
On Wed, Sep 30, 2015 at 6:23 PM, Bruce Bartrug <bbartrug@gmail.com> wrote:
--BABI suspect this past migration was a bit of a fluke, and not indicative of even more habitat loss in Central America and the Caribbean. But there may be other factors. We'll see in a year or so :).Kristen and Derek certainly have good points concerning the poor birding this autumn. One can't make generalizations about bird populations based on one season in which migrants either flew over or just weren't there. Breeding birds population studies would be a better indicator. See here: https://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/bbs/.That said, however, this fall was eerily reminiscent of the widespread concern for the drop in neotropical migrant numbers observed in the 1970s. Those of you who don't remember birding in the 50s (or even 70s) might not realize how neotrops have dropped in numbers. I'd guess at least by 50% since the middle of the twentieth century. Anyone with more specific information please correct me. I wrote an article on the Breeding Bird Survey program for the Portland Press Herald and quoted the BBS for population decline of the Olive-sided Flycatcher, which was then 4% per year. A 2% decline per year halves a population every 25 years.
Too, a friend who is a birder commented recently that we used to have bug spots on our car windows when driving in the summer months and that doesn't seem a very big problem anymore. I don't think I'm overreacting to say that's truly worrying. I don't believe that climate change could affect insect numbers that drastically, although I'm no entomologist. My first guess would be changing agricultural patterns (planting fence to fence and using Round-up resistant seed) and the widespread use of pesticides on crops, lawns, and forests. There again, I know of no studies that signify that to be the case, but I'm hoping that more communities will pass laws restricting the use of lawn chemicals. And I just read that Monsanto is about to introduce grass seed that is resistant to Round-up. Oh, great.
--Bruce Bartrug
Nobleboro, Maine, USA
bbartrug@gmail.com
www.brucebartrug.com
•The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing. - Albert Einstein•In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. -Martin Luther King
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