Another Bird Mystery

I have seen other birds too, but keep an ear out for them in the early morning. Usually you can hear them chirping rather loudly and unison in the morning in nice weather.

Before these bird stories started coming out, some of my friends all over the Sound have commented about not hearing the loud bird chirps in the early morning like we usually do. It's probably nothing, but I am definately listening in curiousity. It's just something that we have always had around here - come to think of it I just though of something else that is really strange. I will report on this if it is valid tomorrow.

Some info on seasonal patterns of birdsong

Also: �A few species such as the Red-eyed Vireo sing more or less all day. But most birds sing more vigorously in the early morning and evening when there is less light. Some species sing at night, such as the Mockingbird and Nightingale. The amount of light rather than the time of day determines the beginning and end of singing. Cloudiness in the morning, for instance, will delay singing. Different bird species react to different amounts of sunlight. So some species in a particular area will begin to sing before others chime in (Dawn Chorus). The dawn chorus may begin at different times each day, depending on the amount of light, but the bird species will begin singing in the same order.

Most birds show a seasonal variation in some that is mainly correlated with breeding activities and hormone production. The richest, fullest song generally comes in the spring when birds are establishing territories and courting (unmated males sing more). After egg-laying commences, the birds sing less so as not to attract predators.

If a male bird renests or its mate is killed, it resumes full singing. In the fall after the breeding season, the bird stops unless it holds a winter territory.

For most species, hormones, stimulated by photoperiod, probably play a dominant role in determining the time of year a bird sings. �

www.ornithology.com...

Hmmm, thanks for the info!

Maybe because our weather has changed so much here, i.e., getting warmer earlier, definately a longer summer, they just don't want to mate anymore - too hot!

I think it has actually affected the mating habits of some humans around here as well!

I have noticed a significant increase in the number of birds here in New Jersey, including the Heron. We have a pond with very large goldfish in our backyard and I have to keep it covered with a screen to keep the birds from taking off with the fish. Also, I mentioned to my wife the other night that birds are waking me up between 3-5 am. I have lived here for four years, and only this summer did I notice the increase in bird activity. IMO, perhaps Yellowstone has something to do with it, ie....potential volcanic activity out West? Maybe the birds are migrating East. Potential volcano activity would also explain the distress in marine life as well, especially since it appears to be occuring primarily in the Pacific.

Originally posted by swdecord
I have noticed a significant increase in the number of birds here in New Jersey, including the Heron. We have a pond with very large goldfish in our backyard and I have

Hmm, maybe that is what is going on. I have definately noticed a decline in bird activity here. As a matter of fact, there are usually tons of black birds and I haven't seen that many. Also, there used to be flocks of small birds that love it where I work because there is a pond and I have not seen one flock. Usually this time of year they eat the berries and then dump on our cars - not that I miss that, but it's odd when your used to something and it's not there anymore.

I live in Kentucky, and I have lived at my current home for 7 years. I have had these birds that live in a few trees I have on my property. They are hundred of them, I dont know what kind they are, but some of them make nest out of mud. But anyway. Like I said they have been here the whole 7 years Ive lived here. Until this week. They are all gone, not even one of them are here. I cant figure out what has happened to them, it is so strange. It has been 3 days since I noticed them gone, and believe me I see them every day. And they leave dropings on my SUV everyday. But the last 3 days, nothing, no sign of them at all. I dont know that much about birds, but I cant figure out why they would be here all these years and then just disappear.

I and my family have noticed a huge increase in the number of seagulls here in the last 2/3 months as well, way above normal for this part of the country.
We allways get seagulls here, being a coastal town, but my god, we've had hundreds of the damn things.

Here are a number of bird related links found in another thread....

www.abovetopsecret.com...

WASHINGTON - Residents of Hanalei Bay on the Hawaiian island of Kauai woke up last weekend to a distressing sight: As many as 200 melon-headed whales, a small and sociable species that usually stays in deep waters, were swimming in a tight circle as close as 100 feet from the beach, showing clear signs of stress.

To keep the animals from beaching, the locals kept a vigil all day and through the night, until a flotilla of kayaks and outrigger canoes could be assembled to herd the animals back out to sea. So far, only one young whale has been found dead.

But among increasingly worried whale advocates and researchers, the event set off immediate alarm bells: Melon-headed whales are not known to beach themselves, and nothing like this mass stranding close call has occurred in Hawaii in 150 years."

Does anyone know what whales use to guide their way. Seems like I heard somewhere it was sound waves.


Its been 5 days now and the birds on my farm are still gone. I just cant figure out what happened to them. Why after 7 years would they just up and leave.

These recent bird mysteries intrigue me. I share with you an exerpt from an article from the National Audubon Society's website:

"...With twelve percent of the world�s bird population�almost 1,200 species�facing extinction in the next century, Winged Messengers outlines an array of phenomena that is accelerating this demise. These include:

Habitat loss: Deforestation rates from 50,000 to 170,000 square kilometers a year pose the single greatest overall threat, jeopardizing 85 percent of the world�s most threatened bird species. While forest re-growth initiatives offset the net losses, for many native animals and plants, simplified plantation monocultures are no substitute for more complex natural forests.

Roads and power lines frequently cut through forests, fragmenting them, increasing the chance of fatal collisions, and providing pathways for predators, competitors, and exotic plants. Intensive hunting often follows when roads cut into forests.

Alien attacks: A rise in global trade and travel over the past century has led to an acceleration in the introduction of exotic (non-native) species. Exotic species�including snakes, rats, cats, plants, and insects�now menace a quarter of globally threatened bird species.

Chemical threats: Large oil spills threaten many seabird populations, but small, less-publicized daily tankers also kill birds. Terrestrial habitats also face threats from oil and natural gas exploration, and transport via pipelines. Worldwide, pesticides kill millions of birds on water and on land.

Hunting, Capture, and Fishing: Illegal hunting and poorly regulated laws lead to the killing of millions of birds around the world. Birds can be loved to death too: Almost a third of the world�s parrot species are threatened with extinction because of the pet trade, and long-term habitat loss. Longline fishing also claims hundreds of thousands of seabirds�23 species now face extinction�when they are inadvertently hooked on baited lines and drowned.

Climate change: Recent evidence of earlier bird migration and nesting in some species seems to indicate early effects of global warming. Scientists fear that in coming years climate change will alter vital bird habitats, from tundra to subtropical coastlines, even pushing some localized species towards extinction...."

- www.worldwatch.org...

Originally posted by Deimos
I and my family have noticed a huge increase in the number of seagulls here in the last 2/3 months as well, way above normal for this part of the country.
We allways get seagulls here, being a coastal town, but my god, we've had hundreds of the damn things.

Where?

The reason why I am asking is because usually we have tons and haven't seen that many. But my brother said that he saw some at Forks.

Folks...We may be in serious trouble!

news.independent.co.uk...

Disaster at sea: global warming hits UK birds
By Michael McCarthy Environment Editor
30 July 2004


Hundreds of thousands of Scottish seabirds have failed to breed this summer in a wildlife catastrophe which is being linked by scientists directly to global warming.

The massive unprecedented collapse of nesting attempts by several seabird species in Orkney and Shetland is likely to prove the first major impact of climate change on Britain.

In what could be a sub-plot from the recent disaster movie, The Day After Tomorrow, a rise in sea temperature is believed to have led to the mysterious disappearance of a key part of the marine food chain - the sandeel, the small fish whose great teeming shoals have hitherto sustained larger fish, marine mammals and seabirds in their millions.

In Orkney and Shetland, the sandeel stocks have been shrinking for several years, and this summer they have disappeared: the result for seabirds has been mass starvation. The figures for breeding failure, for Shetland in particular, almost defy belief.

More than 172,000 breeding pairs of guillemots were recorded in the islands in the last national census, Seabird 2000, whose results were published this year; this summer the birds have produced almost no young, according to Peter Ellis, Shetland area manager for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).

Martin Heubeck of Aberdeen University, who has monitored Shetland seabirds for 30 years, said: "The breeding failure of the guillemots is unprecedented in Europe." More than 6,800 pairs of great skuas were recorded in Shetland in the same census; this year they have produced a handful of chicks - perhaps fewer than 10 - while the arctic skuas (1,120 pairs in the census) have failed to produce any surviving young.

The 24,000 pairs of arctic terns, and the 16,700 pairs of Shetland kittiwakes - small gulls - have "probably suffered complete failure", said Mr Ellis.

In Orkney the picture is very similar, although detailed figures are not yet available. "It looks very bad," said the RSPB's warden on Orkney mainland, Andy Knight. "Very few of the birds have raised any chicks at all."

The counting and monitoring is still going on and the figures are by no means complete: it is likely that puffins, for example, will also have suffered massive breeding failure but because they nest deep in burrows, this is not immediately obvious.

But the astonishing scale of what has taken place is already clear - and the link to climate change is being openly made by scientists. It is believed that the microscopic plankton on which tiny sandeel larvae feed are moving northwards as the sea water warms, leaving the baby fish with nothing to feed on.

This is being seen in the North Sea in particular, where the water temperature has risen by 2C in the past 20 years, and where the whole ecosystem is thought to be undergoing a "regime shift", or a fundamental alteration in the interaction of its component species. "Think of the North Sea as an engine, and plankton as the fuel driving it," said Euan Dunn of the RSPB, one of the world's leading experts on the interaction of fish and seabirds. "The fuel mix has changed so radically in the past 20 years, as a result of climate change, that the whole engine is now spluttering and starting to malfunction. All of the animals in the food web above the plankton, first the sandeels, then the larger fish like cod, and ultimately the seabirds, are starting to be affected."

Research last year clearly showed that the higher the temperature, the less sandeels could maintain their population level, said Dr Dunn. "The young sandeels are simply not surviving."

Although over-fishing of sandeels has caused breeding failures in the past, the present situation could not be blamed on fishing, he said. The Shetland sandeel fishery was catching so few fish that it was closed as a precautionary measure earlier this year. "Climate change is a far more likely explanation."

The spectacular seabird populations of the Northern Isles have a double importance. They are of great value scientifically, holding, for example, the world's biggest populations of great skuas. And they are of enormous value to Orkney and Shetland tourism, being the principal draw for many visitors. The national and international significance of what has happened is only just beginning to dawn on the wider political and scientific community, but some leading figures are already taking it on board.

"This is an incredible event," said Tony Juniper, director of Friends of the Earth. "The catastrophe [of these] seabirds is just a foretaste of what lies ahead.

"It shows that climate change is happening now, [with] devastating consequences here in Britain, and it shows that reducing the pollution causing changes to the earth's climate should now be the global number one political priority."

Scary article! how long before scientist actually come out and start warning people about what is really going on? or will they stay quite? Either way, we're screwed.