Lori
When there were hordes of crows, did they occur commonly during nesting season?
I ask, because roosts are typical in winter, or at least out of nesting season.
Regarding Lars’ comment about Steller’s Jays, only this summer has there been a
nesting pair in the blocks near my house. A pair may have nested in the park
about five year blocks away, at times. Scrub Jays have been in the area for at
least 40 years. I will eventually post about that species’ increase in the
Portland area at some point.
Jeff
On Sep 30, 2021, at 3:44 PM, canyoneagle ("canyoneagle")
<dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Jeff, perhaps it is because of Crows and squirrels as you say.
I don’t know if my experience in the 1990s in Virginia would mean anything,
comparing it to your area in the 2020s, but here goes. I lived in Vienna, VA
for 19 years. Vienna is a suburb of Washington, DC, a very developed
urban/suburban area. At that time the population of the DC area was about
5.5 million people. We chose our house because it backed up to a strip of
woods with a small creek running through it. The woods was pretty good
habitat for wildlife, including many Eastern Gray Squirrels. There were
10-20 in my yard most of the time. My high count for squirrels (all in view
at one time) was 44!
Being a wildlife gardener, over about 10 years I transformed that typical
suburban yard into good wildlife habitat, so the birds and critters felt
comfortable in my yard. I also fed birds, so that attracted the critters as
well. The result was, plenty of birds and squirrels, and also deer, foxes,
raccoons, opossums, and rats, of course. Occasionally a roaming cat or dog
would show up, but not that many, surprisingly, given that coyotes were rare
there. The Town of Vienna had an ordinance against letting cats and dogs run
loose, so perhaps that helped a bit. There were nesting birds in my yard
and/or the woods, including Robin, Cardinal, Sparrow/Towhee species, Blue
Jay, Finch species, Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Wren,
Catbird, Mockingbird, and more.
There were also many thousands of Crows in the area, in massive roosts. I
would have hundreds of Crows streaming over my house daily as they flew
to/from their roosts. Most days they staged in the woods for a while and
there could be 50 or more in the trees before flying on to their roosts.
There were also nesting Crows in the woods. Sometimes I got lucky and I
could watch their nest from my living room window.
However, the Corvid scene changed when people who lived near the large roosts
started complaining about them. After public hearings, at which I spoke
against exterminating the Crows, the people in charge voted to go ahead with
poisoning the Crows coming to the roosts. Not long after that, West Nile
disease hit that area. Between the poisoning and West Nile, Crows
disappeared. I had zero Crows in or over my yard for more than two years.
My many Blue Jays also disappeared, I assume because West Nile disease killed
them.
During those Corvid-less years I didn’t notice any dramatic difference in
numbers of Robins or other nesting birds and their offspring that frequented
my yard, and I watched birds in my yard pretty closely. Not scientific, I
know, but it is what I observed in my little patch, sort of how you are going
by an observation in your little patch. Perhaps if West Nile disease had
killed the squirrels too, there would have been a noticeable difference in
numbers of nesting birds/offspring, I don’t know.
Perhaps my experience means nothing regarding your patch, but thought that I
would mention it, fwiw.
Lori Markoff
-----Original Message-----
From: boo-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <boo-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Jeff
Gilligan
Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 2021 8:41 PM
To: boo <boo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [boo] the suggestion that the absence of earth worms was a factor in
robin decline
I am stepping away from that theory. Although earth worms had not been
detectable for months, following the recent heavy rains, there were a lot in
some yards last night. That written, during the long hot summer, they would
not have been available. In the past I saw them all summer long. Despite
that, I think the causes are the crows and squirrels that were not formerly
present.
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