[TN-Bird] Absent birds (Lewis County)
- From: Bill Pulliam <bb551@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: TN-Bird <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2007 15:54:55 -0500
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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