Yes, I agree that both weather conditions this year and cummulative
decline in populations over the years have combined to make this
fall's migration along the coast dismal.
I have been birding for 4 decades and the decrease in numbers is
especially evident to me during spring warbler migrations. Back in
1975 there were so many birds that I didn't know which ones to look
at. It was like having ADD, birds flitting everywhere and not just in
fallout conditions, but daily during spring migration. Now days that
feeling only happens during a big fallout.
Hopefully inspiriation to us all to keep working in conservation.
Lynn Havsall
Eastbrook
On 10/1/15, Richard Harris Podolsky <richardpodolsky@gmail.com> wrote:
> I think this back and forth on fall 2015 migration is a perfect example of
> how field ornithology benefits from input by us - citizen scientists.
>
> I posed the original question here for the purpose of simply finding out if
>
> my observation that the migration in the Rockland Bog was 1/2 of what I was
>
> expecting was shared by other birders around the state.
>
> The consensus seems to be that folks along the coast indeed agree that *this
>
> fall migration was lower than expected*. Some of you went further and said
>
> that it was the lowest they had seen in decades. This helped me because it
>
> meant that the low numbers and diversity in the bog was likely *due to
> fewer birds using the coastal zone* and not something endemic to the bog
> itself or worse to my ability to find birds!!
>
> I also checked in with BirdCast <http://birdcast.info> and this interesting
>
> program indicated that the may have been a massive single night flight over
>
> the North East on September 20. Check this
> <http://birdcast.info/content/uploads/summary_2015-09-18_2015-09-24_.png>
> out:
>
> [image: summary_2015-09-18_2015-09-24_.png]
>
>
> So, whoever said that maybe the birds just didn't make a lot of stopovers
> along the coast and *just bombed by us in one massive flight* may have been
>
> spot-on!
>
> Secondarily, I was hopping to hear from folks in the western mountains to
> see if they were seeing above, below or normal levels of migration. The
> notion being that perhaps our lower numbers on the coast was offset by
> higher numbers out west - to essentially try and find our missing birds on
> another on-ramp to the Atlantic Flyway. But, so far, only two folks
> weighed in from the west one saying that the numbers were low and the other
>
> that it seemed normal levels. It would be great to hear from more folks,
> especially from deeper interior Maine.
>
> Finally - a lot of folks got very engaged by the disturbing reality *that
> year over year we are losing bird biomass and diversity at the continent
> level* and perhaps that explains our fewer birds this fall. I personally
> think that both are in play - regional weather patterns this fall *AND*
> year over year few birds.
>
> This circles back to the critical role that birders play as *vital
> sentinels of change*. By watching birds, by counting them, by sharing our
> observations in places like Maine Birds -- makes us not just witnesses to
> the decline of birds but agents of the changes that need to occur so we can
>
> witness bird populations rebuilding and surpassing past glory days.
>
> On Tuesday, September 29, 2015 at 6:01:47 PM UTC-4, BAB wrote:
>>
>> Total bust in the Midcoast.
>>
>> BAB
>>
>> --
>> Bruce Bartrug
>> Nobleboro, Maine, USA
>> bbar...@gmail.com <javascript:>
>> 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
>>
>
> --
> Maine birds mailing list
> maine-birds@googlegroups.com
> http://groups.google.com/group/maine-birds
> https://sites.google.com/site/birding207
> ---
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "Maine birds" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
> email to maine-birds+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
>
--
Maine birds mailing list
maine-birds@googlegroups.com
http://groups.google.com/group/maine-birds
https://sites.google.com/site/birding207
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Maine birds" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to maine-birds+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
0 comments:
Post a Comment