[wisb] Winter Solstice Challenge summary

From: Lennie Lichter <lennieandmaria@xxxxxxxxx>
To: Wisbird <wisbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 27 Dec 2009 07:25:54 -0800 (PST)
Hi folks.
Sunday 12/27/09 report.
The thermometer read 11.3 and the sky was mostly cloudy this morning when I 
went on my final Solstice Challenge hike of the year.  The following birds were 
heard:

Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker
Blue Jay
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Northern Cardinal
Purple Finch
American Goldfinch

A little more singing was heard this morning.  Both the slower and faster songs 
of the White-breasted Nuthatch, the Fee-bee-bee song of a couple of 
Black-capped Chickadees and the Peter-peter-peter song of the Tufted Titmouse 
were heard at various times.  A Pileated Woodpecker was also heard drumming a 
few times.

First of all, this was the premise of the original Challenge:

..."the book "Birdsong by the Seasons" by Donald Kroodsma that I read parts of 
recently.  One chapter is devoted to the author's admittedly 
unproven theory that the true first day of Spring is the Winter Solstice.  In 
an attempt to prove this he kept track of the early morning birds he heard for 
a time period covering from about a week before the shortest day through a week 
after.  Sure enough, for that particular year anyway he did find birds of 
various species were at best just communicating with calls up until that day.  
On the day of the Solstice and for the remainder of his study, these same 
species were giving at least partial renditions of their Spring songs (or 
drumming, etc.)."

Now that the 13 days of this first Solstice Challenge at our Wilderness Retreat 
are in the past, I feel that the following results were found.  While the 
singing/displaying of the last couple days were as pronounced as any during the 
entire period, they were not any more noticeable than they were on the coldest 
days of the period almost two weeks ago.  For this particular year in this 
particular area the actual day of the Winter Solstice, as well as the day 
before, had a little singing but they were centered in a relatively quiet 
stretch of 5 or 6 other days that had virtually no singing at all.  So I didn't 
see the same or similar results that were found by the author.  Tune in next 
year for further results.

Lennie Lichter
Monroe County



      
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[wisb] Winter Solstice Challenge summary

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