Very odd. No birds.

[Lucille]

For the past 3 or 4 days I haven't seen a bird outside. It's not just that they haven't visited the additional feeders I've put up, it is that I haven't seen ANY birds outside. None in the trees. None flying.

I realize some birds fly elsewhere for winter, but here a lot of them stay.

My pet birds inside are fine, so it should not be air quality.

Very odd.

 

[WebSlave]

Strange that you mention this. We normally are overrun with gold finches and robins coming down from the North, but so far we have only seen one robin and one gold finch. Maybe it's still too early, but I thought by December they were here.

Matter of fact, even the cardinals and other birds we normally see at the feeder have been pretty darn scarce.

Didn't miners used to take canaries into the mines as an early warning for poisonous fumes that the birds would respond to faster than humans could detect them?

Or maybe they just found some place with better fare on the menu then what we are offering here?

Surely they must be SOMEWHERE?

 

[hhmoore]

Oddly enough, I was just remarking the other day that I hadn't been seeing birds around here. I assumed it was related to the hours I've been keeping; now I'm intrigued.

 

[Lucille]

I have pet birds inside, parakeets and finches (canaries are very similar to finches). They are doing fine, so I don't think it is air quality.
I have 5 feeders outside freshly filled with seeds, they don't look like they've been touched.

I posted my observation on a gardening board where I have been a long time member. A couple of people agreed they haven't seen many birds, but here is one quote from someone who lives north of Houston: "I have seen lots of birds, in fact it was almost the bird movie the other night at the grocery store the trees were vibrating with birds and they were everywhere in the parking lot, kinda scary. The tops of the cars all had birds on them. And they weren't scared at all we could not shoo them off the car to leave. They rode along till we left the parking lot. Very strange."
She has her head on straight, so I believe what she said.

 

[JColt]

Been warm up north here. A few cold days here and there but supposed to be 57 this Thursday in Cleveland. Massive snowstorm this time last year.

 

[snowgyre]

You can always check ebird.org and see if the patterns you're seeing this year reflect historical records (ebird.org has reliable data back until the 1970s). The big migration push is done, however, so we're in the winter lull now.

 

[Lucille]

Thanks Vanessa. I actually sent them an email, so hopefully they will reply with some insight. There are some types of birds who leave in the winter but we have a number that will stay, as it does not get extremely cold here.

 

[CwnAnnwn]

Not a problem around here. The birds have been hanging out later here. Yesterday, the geese was this dark mass in the sky.

Had 4 horned larks. Almost killed myself trying to get a picture, they flew away.

This morning, the werns where fighting in the hops vines and a chickadee would not SHUT UP.

 

[E.Shell]

Strange that you mention this. We normally ar overrun with gold finches and robins coming down from the North, but so far we have only seen one robin and one gold finch. Maybe it's still too early, but I thought by December they were here...

The robins are still here in Virginia. There have been thousands of them over the last few weeks. Flocks of 100-150 or so circulating though, hitting the cedar and holly berries, crapping on my truck and field equipment, then heading out.

 

[WebSlave]

Wasn't there a bird flu epidemic this past summer that affected chicken egg production? Do you suppose it had an impact on wild birds as well?

 

[snowgyre]

It's doubtful. The avian flu the chickens got was from contaminated stock, and all birds were euthanized and the facilities sterilized. There are many different strains of avian influenza, each with varying degrees of harm, similar to human influenzas.

If there was a demonstrable fallout of wild birds due to disease, it would be all over the news. The CDC, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, NGOs, wildlife groups, Ducks Unlimited, Pheasants Forever, the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study (SCWDS), etc. would be all over it. For example, we had a series of mass deaths among pine siskins a few years back, and SCWDS was able to prove within a week or so that a salmonella strain caused the deaths.

My guess is we're simply in the post-migration lull. After the peak migration high, winter birds can seem depauperate by comparison. If you're concerned you can always check the local birding activity through your local birding clubs (e.g. Audubon Societies) or look up recent sightings on ebird.org.

I'm quite active in the birding scene and there's been no concerns among birders in Georgia. Bird numbers and activity seem normal. I've been hunting a lot in the past month and have seen a good diversity (both numbers of species and individuals).

 

[WebSlave]

Well, the gold finches have started to show up, finally. Had a group of robins swoop in and strip the holly tree by the side porch of it's ripe berries, and then they were gone again. Guess they all just make their rounds on their own schedules...

 

[Lucille]

I've seen one or two birds at a time at the feeder the last few weeks so maybe they will come back a little at a time.

 

[JColt]

15 today so you should be seeing Cleveland birds soon! brrrr.

 

[WebSlave]

Supposed to get down to 27 degrees here in north Florida tonight, so they might all just pass on by and keep on heading south.

I'm rooting for GLOBAL WARMING! B-R-I-N-G I-T O-N!!

 

[OR Hill]

This summer here in Maryland there was a definite lack of birds in some areas. A local waterway and campus usually have good numbers of typical suburban birds - mockingbirds, robins, cardinals, song sparrows, chipping sparrows. Well the campus was silent this late summer and fall. Normally even if you can’t see them you can here them. Sometimes hawks will cause them to hide but not a lot of hawks either. My wooded back yard is okay though.

 

[nickolasanastasiou]

No changes where I was or where I am.

Currently have a good three species of owls on the property going by the noise outside of where I occasionally sleep. Some falcons hunt the grounds and nest at the tops of some of my taller trees. A bunch of cardinals spend time in the bushes in the tortoise pens. There are many pairs of pileated woodpeckers that nest in a dead tree at the back of the property (and yell at me from afar when I walk around either the front or the back during the day). All sorts of tiny warblers and finches flitting about. Sometimes eating with the tortoises. I worry my Burmese blacks will start catching them (I have seen mine catch sparrows before). More incentive to keep the tortoises overfed, I guess. Sandhill cranes walk by the property and start to come up the one driveway, but I do not want them raiding my main pond, so I tend to run at them while yelling belligerently like some sort of animated porcelain ape to keep them from venturing too close. If something kills something else or dies (like a possum that fell out of a tall tree and slammed into the ground), one or more turkey vultures show up pretty quickly.

That is the bulk of what I have seen here.

Also, turkeys. This blurry photo was taken last week when they took off running before I could focus the shot. Only about 75% of the birds present that day were in frame. In October, I counted a group of forty-seven turkeys together. This is on a piece of property that is maybe twenty to thirty feet from my plot. The most I ever saw congregated in Missouri was a group of perhaps eleven large adults as well as many other smaller groups consisting of a mother and her three to five young. Sometimes single animals roaming, too.

These are just the birds that are common at and around the house.

 

[OR Hill]

I love visiting Florida it is wildlife watching utopia for me between all the birds including very unique ones, gators and the bajillion lizard everywhere.

 

[nickolasanastasiou]

Being the albino gorilla ninja that I am, I took these some minutes ago.

Anyone know what it is? I did not want to frighten it, so I did not grab it to get a photograph of the face.

Stubby finger for scale.

 

[snowgyre]

It's a Carolina wren. You found its roost. Adorable, cheeky little guys! They always scold me when I'm working in the yard.