Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From:
Janie
Date: 11 May 15 - 11:10 PM
i dunno guest. I mostly see birds that are either here year round or commonly winter here. I frequent a privately owned birdstore franchise near where I work but about 20 miles from where I live, and usually have a good gossip about what birds have been seen once a week, plus the owners send out e-mails on a regular basis on what they have seen in their own backyards and what other backyard birdwatchers are reporting.
I work long hours and can not assume that birds I rarely see and thrill me when I do see them have not routinely frequented the yard during migration when I didn't happen to be around or looking out the window. I do know I do not live on a major migratory flyway.
From talking to other backyard birders and exchanging 'notes' with the folks at the birdshop, it seems that both Rose-breasted Grosebeaks and Red-headed woodpeckers have been seen more than is usual the past year or so. The Grosebeaks are definitely migratory. In theory, we are in the year-round range of Red-headed woodpeckers, but they are migratory also, and are unusual, if not rare, in this region. An unusually high number of us have had them at our feeders this winter and spring for this year. Further reading on-line suggests that they are becoming more uncommon across their entire range, but also that their numbers and appearances vary considerably over time in any part of their range. I was hoping the woodpecker would stick around, but was quite sure it was solo (was in immature feathers this winter and molted to mature plumage early this spring.) Without a mate, it was bound to leave. Hope it will be back. While folks 10 miles west reported seeing 3-5 Rose-Breasted Grosebeaks at a time at their feeders over the last 2-4 weeks, I am pretty sure I had only one. I saw my first of that species last spring. Maybe they have been here before and I missed them, but I think not, simply because it was here for at least 3 weeks before continuing it's migration and I really think I would have spotted them before over that amount of time. I actually wonder if it is the same bird. Although their breeding grounds tend to be much further north of where I live, they do also breed in the North Carolina mountains, along the top of the Blue Ridge. I always wonder if the migratory birds that mostly nest well north of here but also along the crest of the Appalachians that I happen to see are among the small populations that migrate up the coast then cross the Piedmont to breed up in the mountains of western NC.
As best I can tell, the major migratory flyways on the East Coast for birds either run up the Atlantic Coast or from the central Gulf Coast, over the deep south Mississippi River states up into the Appalachian range, which begins at least in northwest Georgia, and arguably in northern Alabama. My speculation is not well informed, just based on looking at range maps of summer grounds.
I've lived on the NC Piedmont for 29 years, in 3 very different habitats within a 20 mile radius. Some birds are ubiquitous to all three habitats, year round or in the summer or winter season. Many have not been, and have been specific to the habitats where I have lived, even within that small radius of 20 miles.
Habitats are shrinking.
Keep your feeders clean:>)
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sj
