Wow, Liz! That is horrible. Come to think of it, mosquitos and yellow
jackets are low but the little biting flies seem to be plentiful and I
never noticed them before. I am referring to our house property on North
Bank Rd.
I forgot bluebirds had babies too this year.
Janice
On Wed, Jul 3, 2019, 3:12 PM Anya Shortridge <ashortridge@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
We had our first tree swallow nestbox this year, with 5 chicks
successfully hatched. So fun to watch! We hadn't seen the parents, usually
very doting and attentive, in maybe a couple of days... So we checked the
box today. Sadly, all 5 chicks were deceased, cold, still without eyes
opened. Trying to figure out what happened. There are no wounds, and there
is no sign of the parents or any of the other swallows that were around
here...
Anya
On 7/3/2019 2:03 PM, Gayner, Elizabeth (Redacted sender egayner for DMARC)
wrote:
I have been banding birds at the same site for 20 years on Canyon
Mountain. The last couple of years have had low numbers of birds with
virtually no young of the year. This year so far has been super low...
lowest yet. Adult birds not even in breeding condition and low on fat
reserves (based on general observation). We too have noticed the lack of
insects... silk moth caterpillars especially used to fill the trees. It
dawned on us today while out there... we haven't seen the caterpillars the
last couple of years. And we are not even getting eaten up by mosquitoes
and no-seeums like we used to... which, though we are not complaining about
it in terms of their being a nuisance, but it is a concern in terms of food
sources for the birds.
*Liz*
*Elizabeth I. Gayner*
*Lead Wildlife Biologist - Swiftwater Field Office*
*OR/WA BLM Peregrine Falcon Technical Coordinator*
Bureau of Land Management - Roseburg District Office
Phone: (541) 464-3381; egayner@xxxxxxx
On Wed, Jul 3, 2019 at 1:33 PM Mary Anne Brown <majbrown54@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Our cliff swallow's nest have been falling this year & the insect/food
supply is weak, over the last 10 years the small moths are virtually gone.
This years crop is not promising...anyone else experiencing that?
Mary Anne
