FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] Absent birds (Lewis County)

[Bill Pulliam <bb551@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I've noticed dramatic shortages of some bird species this autumn.   
Specifically, at my place in western Lewis County, these ordinarily  
common species were way down in September 2007 in comparison to past  
years:

Green Heron (-100%; i.e. entirely absent)
Mourning Dove (-85%)
Yellow-billed Cuckoo (-100%)
Red-headed Woodpecker (-100%)
Red-eyed Vireo (-90%)
Tennessee Warbler (-85%)
Nashville Warbler (-100%)
Magnolia Warbler (-70%)
Bay-breasted Warbler (-80%)
Black-and-white Warbler (-85%)
American Redstart (-80%)
Scarlet Tanager (-90%)

Also, Eastern Meadowlarks are virtually absent from the entire county  
now.  They are not normally regular at my farm, but they are usually  
numerous at several spots in the area.  In recent weeks I have not  
seen a single one.

Are other people seeing similar trends elsewhere?  One could blame it  
on the boring weather not leading to migrant pileups, but that is  
pretty normal for September and would have affected most previous  
years too (this is my 6th Autumn here).  It has gotten too late in  
the season to continue hoping that the big waves are just delayed and  
will show up eventually.  It could be that the drought and freeze  
have left our local habitats so scarce on food that the migrants that  
do stop here leave the next night rather than sticking around; this  
would lower apparent abundances even if the total number passing  
through were the same.  Or... worst case: it could indicate some  
massive nesting failures of woodland species to our north.  For the  
most part, my tallies of local woodland and oldfield nesters are  
similar to previous years, in spite of the extreme weather.  What are  
other people seeing?

The few species that were dramatically higher this September than  
previous years:

Ruby-throated Hummingbird (+375%) -- neighbors put up multiple feeders!
Swainson's Thrush (+300%) -- definitely bucking the trend
House Finch (+infinity%, i.e. not recorded in previous Septembers) --  
ditto on the feeders

Bill Pulliam
Hohenwald TN
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