Dale and I have been photographing insects for the past several years. We
notice when there is a lot of wildfire smoke, the insect are not nearly as
visible. Now, this year, with no smoke as yet, we feel numbers of insects in
general are low. Where they knocked down during the heavy smoke years???
Yellowjackets are usually low at the beginning of summer. It takes a while for
their nests to build up to larger population.
Just food for thought .
Elva Paulson
On Jul 3, 2019, at 3:40 PM, Janice Reid
<jeoreid@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:jeoreid@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
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<mailto: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<mailto:egayner@xxxxxxx>
On Wed, Jul 3, 2019 at 1:33 PM Mary Anne Brown
<majbrown54@xxxxxxxxx<mailto: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
