Re: [Maine-birds] Very Sad

With the heavy crust and ice this winter rodents may not be as accessible - may be forcing the bumper crop of young owls to the roadsides more than usual.

Sarah

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From: maine-birds@googlegroups.com <maine-birds@googlegroups.com> on behalf of frobey <frobey69@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, February 6, 2017 1:47:12 PM
To: Maine birds
Cc: mainelypets@gmail.com
Subject: Re: [Maine-birds] Very Sad

 

Here in Stoneham, both inside and outside the WMNF, I haven't heard many barred owls calling for the last maybe 4-5 months...I would think this time of year they would be calling since I believe it is their nesting season, I typically would hear them during the day in my walks into the National Forest...not sure what's going on...until last week I hadn't seen many mouse tracks in the snow either...I'm now starting to see a few. 

My walks range all over the National Forest by my house so I'm covering quite a bit of ground at different elevations...

If you haven't had the chance to watch the documentary "The Messenger" I HIGHLY recommend it, it deals with all the myriad issues birds (mostly songbirds) have with human caused "problems", from outdoor cats, to buildings, to lights, to pumping stations, to loss of habitat, etc...It's available on Netflix now...

Frank

On Sunday, February 5, 2017 at 10:19:01 AM UTC-5, Peter Vickery wrote:

I've seen at least 8 dead Barred Owls this winter.  Most are probably first winter birds straying onto roadsides.  It may well be a reflection of high productivity last spring so what we're seeing is probably part of a brighter larger picture.

Many have made comments on this before.  Birds, animals, plants, etc.. die.  Try the following simple thought experiment :  robins have an average of 4+- eggs per clutch and can 3 clutches per summer.  If all those 12 young survived and returned to your yard with mates (this doesn't happen for other reasons, remember this is a mental experiment) the following - that 13 pairs in the yard ready to be 100% successful once more.  Just imagine 3 years down the line, the yard is knee deep in robins.  That obviously doesn't happen, meaning the majority of young didn't survive.  Most of this mortality happens elsewhere but we don't see it.  We are seeing the dead big Barred Owls but it doesn't necessarily reflect terrible things happening.  It's just part of population dynamics of birds (and many other organisms), we just get to see this but we miss 90+ % of the robin deaths.

On Sat, Feb 4, 2017 at 10:02 PM Aletha Boyle <maine...@gmail.com> wrote:

Last weekend as I was driving up to my Southwest Harbor Artisans meeting, I spotted something to my left on 95. Stopped -  ran over, Barred Owl dead.  Perfectly intact, it's beak was broken.  I picked it up and examined it and was astonished at how light it was.  This bird I do not believe had been dead that long.  

Today, as I travelled on rt 135 in Belgrade, I came upon another kill in the road.  I stopped.  Again it was a Barred Owl.  It had more injuries, but very sad.  

What is happening with these Barred Owls?  

Do they think all the blue Bud Light cans on the side of the road are prey????  

So very sad.  

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