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Bird Watching gets Disturbing

corplinx

JREF Kid
corplinx
Joined
Oct 22, 2002
Messages
8,952
I didn't know what other forum to post this in. Recently I have taken to feeding birds out back of my house. Its wintertime and I enjoy seeing the birds settle down and eat. Something has disturbed me though and it didn't ring until today. I have seen many varied kinds of birds due to feeding different things. I have not however seen a single bluejay. Last year, west nile virus hit my region and apparently it has decimated the bluejay population. Anyone else seen this?
 
Yes :(

I do, however, have an abnormally large amount of hummingbirds for this time of year. Our warm weather (no freeze) has apparently kept them from travelling south or something.
 
Here in the UK its the sparrow thats in rapid decline.

http://www.observer.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,873195,00.html
The British sparrow population has almost halved in the last 30 years, from 24 million to less than 14 million.
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I'm not sure i buy the mobile phone explanation though! However, there is a full scale census going on right now ...

http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=372551
More than 300,000 amateur birdwatchers are expected to focus their binoculars on their gardens in an exercise to measure the size and diversity of the nation's avian population.
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I'd participate except I wouldn't know a penguin from a peacock!!:D
 
I live out in North West Houstain, Texas. It is an area of rapid sub-division development, scratching itself out of cow-pastures, and mixed pine/oak woodlands.

Every morning and afternoon, as I drive home, I pass an undeveloped area. This area was patrolled by three Red-Tail Hawks. Big, beautiful birds of prey.

They can usually be seen scanning from high telephone-pole perches, soaring on a thermal, or dropping down to the ground to pounce (a rare, but wicked-cool treat on my drive home).

This past week, I saw one of them dead in the road :(

That's my sad bird watching story.
 
Dunno where you're posting from, Corplinx, but yeah, the Illinois blue jay (and crow) population was hit bad last year by West Nile. I heard about people all over picking them up, dead.

The data for the 2002 Christmas Bird Count haven't been compiled yet.
http://www.freelists.org/archives/audubon-news/12-2002/msg00001.html
AUDUBON INVITES BIRDERS AND NATURE ENTHUSIASTS TO
TAKE PART IN 103rd ANNUAL CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT

Count Organizers Hope to Document the Possible
Impacts of West Nile Virus on Crows, Owls and Raptors

New York, NY December 10, 2002 -Audubon calls upon volunteers to join with birders across the western hemisphere and participate in what has become Audubon's winter-time tradition, the annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC), held this year between December 14, 2002 and January 5, 2003. In particular, of special interest to researchers are the birds that may have been most affected by West Nile Virus: Corvids (Crows, Ravens, Magpies, and Jays), Owls, and Eagles and other raptors.

"This year, West Nile Virus seems to have had a larger impact on U.S. bird populations than in years past," said Audubon's Senior Vice President for Science Frank Gill. "While we hope use CBC data to learn if there are regional declines in Crows, Jays, Owls, and raptors it is crucial that organizers and participants conduct their counts as usual. That way their results from this year will be entirely comparable to those of the past century's seasons. Our volunteers' efforts are vital if we are to understand the effects of this deadly bird epidemic."
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edit to fix sloppy paragraphs
 
The West Nile Virus may be killing a few Bluejays but the natural
enemy of birds are cats....

......at least whenever I'm bird-watching there's always a pussy there somewhere.
 
Goshawk said:
Dunno where you're posting from, Corplinx, but yeah, the Illinois blue jay (and crow) population was hit bad last year by West Nile. I heard about people all over picking them up, dead.

The data for the 2002 Christmas Bird Count haven't been compiled yet.]
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Hey Goshawk, you a birder too?
 
Eh, just out the back window anymore. I used to do a lot, got up to IIRC about 175 birds on my Life List, but I don't even know where all my notebooks are anymore, that's how long it's been. :D
 
Anyone ever particiipated in the Cornell Bird Count???

I'm not a bird watcher, but thought this would be a good way to get started, and add to scientific knowledge at the same time.

Do all the bird watching chicks look like Jane Hathaway???
 
Goshawk said:
Eh, just out the back window anymore. I used to do a lot, got up to IIRC about 175 birds on my Life List, but I don't even know where all my notebooks are anymore, that's how long it's been. :D
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That's sad, and you've got so many good birds over there in the states. I'm just back from a 2 week blitz around Malaysia, 300+ birds, of which 202 were lifers, fantastic!

Just do it!:)
 
I've never done the Backyard Bird Count, but I have done both the Christmas Bird Count, which is always a blast, and the May Bird Count, which is always totally exhausting for some reason.

And no, the chicks don't look like Jane Hathaway--they look like Granny. :D
 
I hold my hand up as a closet birder. Shame to hear about those Bluejays, they look like neat birds.

Hypocolius, I recorded the first Pied Stonechat in Saudi Arabia and discovered the first breeding White-Tailed plovers in the Arabian penninsula. Record breaking is easy in the middle east!
 
I'm also into birdwatching. Not so much counting, as always being on the lookout for new ones.
I've got nothing but sparrows at my birdfeeder.
I've never seen a birdfeeder for sale in Japan (I made one, then bought another in Canada), nor can I find any decent wild bird feed, like suet or black oil sunflower seeds.
I gotta try some fruit and peanut butter, I guess.

As for disturbing sights, I saw an amateur video on the news. A goshawk attacked an egret larger than itself, held it underwater until it drowned, dragged it up on shore and ate it.

Also, in the late 60s a flamingo was spotted on a beach in Nova Scotia of all places, after a hurricane. It was later found dead--someone had shot it.
Ah, humans.
 
My parents have a couple feeders out back. Lots of sparrows and such, but they get some really cool gold finches and cardinals. Bluejays have never been real common around here, but I don't recall the last time I saw one.
 
I usually get scrub jays building a nest in the backyard during the summer and almost every year I find a little pile of blue feathers on the ground.

I tried a birdfeeder once but was a bit put off by the sheer mess the birds made. I'll stick with just the hummingbird feeder, I think.
 
ceptimus said:
'Decimated' means 'reduced by one-tenth'.
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popular parlance has changed the definition of the word, to some extent. the 3rd defintion of "decimated" in Marriam Webster dictionary, for instance, is "to reduce drastically especially in number b : to destroy a large part of ".
 
Well, back in NJ, we had a zillion red-tailed hawks, a group of about 6 turkey vultures, a golden eagle pair, googleplex of crows, but we were lacking jays there, too, now that you mention it. There were a few. More cardinals than jays, though, which now that you mention it was quite odd. (Yes, I know Golden Eagles are not an east-coast species, but there they were. They are sorta hard to miss sitting in the maple tree in the front yard, let me tell you! I think the tree was starting to lean, though. :) )

We also had visiting grossbeaks spring and fall, a googleplex of assorted little songbirds, and every once in a while an invasion of rooks.

But in 2002 on the drive across, there were lots of Blue Jays in Ohio, at least.

The crows, I'm told, are taking it on the chin in NJ now.

Here in Washington we have a FEW, a small number of songbirds, a bunch of Ravens (I thought crows were a pain!), and (yes, I'm not kidding) a (*&(* Big Eared Owl living in a dead tree in the backyard (I should explain, my backyard and my neighbors backyards make up about 5 acres of original cedar forest, about 125 to 150' high, including deadfalls and snags)

Flippin owl, well, it's nice to have around, but when it perches on the skylight (that would be bedroom skylight, 3am :eek: ) and starts to hoot, I swear I'm going to start tossing slippers at it.

But we haven't many mice, and not a rat, and the squirrels are the most speedy, paranoid squirrels I've seen in a long time. You just don't want to walk on the ground underneath its nest is all, EWWW!
 
ceptimus,

ceptimus said:
'Decimated' means 'reduced by one-tenth'.
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Yes, originally that was the meaning (When rebelling troups were captured they would be decimated, meaning that every tenth soldier would be killed), but present usage is almost the complete opposite. To decimate the enemy is to almost wipe it out (more like leaving only one tenth alive)

BillyJoe


edit: I see Oedipus Rex has gone off first. :cool:
 
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