Download TRANSCRIPT EPISODE DATE: 3/28/12

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TRANSCRIPT
EPISODE DATE: 3/28/12
EPISODE NAME: Bird Notes with Mark LaBarr of Audubon Vermont
Today on Across the Fence it's our monthly bird notes program and will learn about some of
the results of this year's great backyard bird count. Good afternoon and thanks for joining
us; I am Judy Simpson. And as always on the fourth Wednesday of the month I am joined
by Mark LaBarr, conservation biologist for Audubon Vermont. Great to see you again.
Mark.: Always great to be here.
Judy.: Remind us a little bit about what the backyard bird count is all about?
Mark.: The great backyard bird count is an effort by Audubon Cornell lab of ornithology
and other partners to build upon what's happened with the Christmas bird counts over the
years. The Christmas bird count has been going on for more than 100 years and this is the
15th year of the great backyard bird count which is a three day count to try to get citizen
scientists out in the field reporting the birds they see. This information can be sent in the
computer or sent in for scientists to look at to see any trends that are happening or longterm trends or in the case of this year with our really warm weather short term trends.
Judy.: So who topped the list bird wise?
Mark.: For the national list the two big ones were the northern cardinal and the mourning
dove. Those were the most birds reported. The most birds that were seen were actually
snow geese. At one wildlife refuge in Surry they had over two million snow geese reported
there. The whole count more than 17,000,000 birds were reported for the total over the
three days. Over 100,000 different checklists submitted. A really big effort by folks sitting
in their house looking at feeders as well as folks going out and searching in their back yard.
Judy.: That's terrific. What species top of the Vermont list?
Mark.: In Vermont our big name was the gold finch that's what we had lined here with a
show today. The gold finch was reported just over 4000 birds were seen this year compared
to last year where we were just under 2000. A little difference why that one is and why
gold finch were seen probably a lot of them were counted at feeders but again a little bump
there. Chickadees came in second just over 3000 birds this year a little less than last year.
Again there's been a lot of people which is interesting reporting that they haven't been
seeing birds at their feeder and that's because of this abnormally warm winter. We could
maybe see a little bit of that in those results. American crow came in third with 3000 birds
compared to 2500 last year. Very common bird easy to see often seen in large numbers so a
lot of people are counting them. Next on the list are junkos. They came in at about 2400
about twice as much as last year so again why we have more junkos this year than last year
it's hard to tell. Our blue jays are another favorite. These birds when you look at the
national list these are birds that are very easily seen and people see at their feeders. Our
blue jays came in just over 2000 birds and just under 2000 last year. Then of course the
last one which we've had tons of reports about and we've talked about I think on the last
couple shows has been the American robin. About 2500 birds were reported this year and
that compares to only 350 birds reported last year.
Judy.: Wow so it's not our imagination there are a lot more robins.
Mark.: There are and the great backyard bird count from previous data has shown that and
warm winters and winters particularly without snow we tend to see robins wintering much
farther north than they normally do. Again last year very snowy winter we see robins
pretty much all year around here in Vermont with lower numbers in the winter but lower
numbers last year because of the snow count this year very little snow and a little bit
warmer so we're seeing fivefold, six-fold of what we saw last year.
Judy.: Was there anything other than the robins that stood out from last year?
Mark.: Kind of in an interesting way which also demonstrates how the count works and
how it can inform scientists and folks and about what's happening. Last year we had close
to 6111 common redpolls were seen. This is a bird that is an eruptive species that a bird it
comes down in great numbers. Last year was a great redpoll year this year we saw less
than a couple hundred. Again demonstrating a lot of redpolls seen out west and there's
really good numbers of redpolls out west so they seem to spend their time in western
locations rather than here. Again the gold finch bumped the redpoll this year. A warbler
species we talked about this on the last show the yellow-rumped warbler. We had four of
them so not that big of a number but we've had very few of them in the past and no yellowrumped warblers last year. Again an early migrant assuming that the birds actually
migrated but one that tends to return early as far as warblers are concerned being caught
in mid-February. Bald eagles this year we had 40 birds counted and we had nine counted
last year.
Judy.: 40 this year?
Mark.: 40 birds this year and this is an eagle off in the distance a photo by Dan Crapaux
but it actually sitting on a deer carcass. We had the same thing happen at the Audubon
where a deer was hit by a car and we had an eagle sitting and feeding in January for a
couple of days. Oftentimes most of those sightings were probably down around on Lake
Champlain where the Otter Creek comes in that seems to be the area where a lot of these
birds congregate. Another bird the eastern bluebird we get calls all the time they are right
up there with Robins as far as birds that people think that shouldn't be here but are. We
have 53 this year compared to only 28 last year. You have bluebirds in your backyard?
Judy.: Yes I just noticed them again.
Mark.: They just showed up? Is that about on time?
Judy.: Yup. It seems a little early.
Mark.: And that's what folks are saying too; not only are these results indicative of the
warm winter but we are also a week early on a lot of the migrants that are returning. The
American kestrel. We had two birds this year this is a small falcon. Last year and years
before very few last year we had zero. Bohemian waxwings this is another erupted species.
We have cedar waxwings here in the summer bohemian waxwings almost look exactly like
that except they have that red under tail. People were waiting for them to show up and
they did but it was rather late. This year we picked up 890 of them on the great backyard
bird count compared to last year's 300. Finally what I consider the harbinger of spring is
the red wing blackbird. A lot of people say robins.
Judy.: No it's when you first hear their song.
Mark.: I agree that concklery driving along people go by the marsh and you hear the
concklery. This year we had 55 of them picked up compared to about 27 last year. So again
just a sense that things are little ahead of schedule for those early migrants and that we did
see some big changes because of that warm weather.
Judy.: OK we have some viewer mail that we can get to. This first one is from Deedee G.
from Essex Town. She sent a picture she said what am I my guess is an immature cooper's
hawk. No white or red one flew away about crow size. Thanks Mark.
Mark.: Well Deedee she was spot on as they say. This is a picture that she sent of the
cooper's hawk. It is in immature bird and if you look on the lower portion of the tail you
can see a pretty distinct white band. The band is also curved on the bottom so that's the
way I'd differentiate between this and a similar bird a sharp shin hawk. The sharp shin
has a straight flat edge at the bottom of the tail with a very narrow white band. That was
an immature one, it was brown didn't have any characteristics of adult features. So she
was right on with that one.
Judy.: Yes it was a good picture.
Mark.: I've one here from Miriam Hairwig of Randolph Center. She says regarding the bird
count in which I participated. I'm assuming it's a great backyard bird count. In the
Randolph area more than 800 crows were counted. Last year's most numerous bird were
Chickadees with over 500 this year only 214 Chickadees. So again seeing that those birds
don't need to come to the feeders if there's enough food around elsewhere. I too have
arrogant crows driving along my driveway and under my window feeder. I'm afraid Crows
are the reasons I get reports of fewer birds at feeders all this so called winter. When I was
young (I'm 88) crows were not seen all winter. They are citing at about Washington's
birthday was heralded as the first sign of spring. That's an interesting insight from. You
kind of wish the great backyard bird count was going on 88 years ago.
Judy.: Because it seems like crows are everywhere.
Mark.: It does and they seem to have benefited from probably from us humans and they've
done that all along. This would be something to actually look back and see what the
Christmas bird count which is held in December and to compare notes there. This is one of
the reasons we collect all that data so we can track those changes. That was good.
Whether or not crows are actually causing the decline of other birds at feeders?
Judy.: I was going to ask you about that because are they seen as aggressive?
Mark.: Jays can be as you know. They can come in and they can be rather disruptive. My
guess is maybe they have some impact if they come to a feeder in numbers and they are
flapping around that could be intimidating. But whether there causing fewer birds I think
in this winter as I mentioned earlier the big case is that there's plenty of food out there
other than feeders they weren't forced in there and fewer numbers were seen.
Judy.: I have a note from Margaret Beecher from Champlain New York. She says where
are all the sparrow's where have they been all year? We've always had sparrow's nesting in
our 30 plus birdhouses in the spring raising their young in our three acre yard. Seeking
shelter in the birdhouse is all winter not so this year can you offer an explanation?
Mark.: It may be the same factor. With the winter that's not as harsh and these birds are
not necessarily forced to roost into protective areas. I'm guessing a little bit now. It also
may be that they have a local predator. That cooper's hawk that we saw earlier or sharp
shinned hawk. If there was one of those in the area that would cause the birds all the birds
in that area to be very wary and to move on to places where there wasn't a threat of
predation. A couple of factors could be playing and hopefully by now those birds are back
looking for a place to nest and she has a full complement in all of her feeders. I have one
here from Caroline Sargent and Nancy Needham it's says dear Mark and I think we have a
theme going here. My daughter had a question for you could you tell us to what's happened
to all the birds when Hurricane Irene came along. We haven't seen many birds since the
hurricane. Did they drown from all the force of the mud and rain maybe you can tell us?
Again I think what they said were on a theme. More than likely Hurricane Irene didn't
have an immediate impact. It may have had an immediate impact but probably a longterm impact probably not. These folks are probably just not seeing birds at their feeder
more because of the winter another kind of climate event as opposed to the hurricane that
came through and dropped all the rain on Vermont.
Judy.: You've always mentioned in past programs that the weather does play a pretty big
part in when we see birds how many we see and when they leave.
Mark.: That's correct although the weather can be approximate. Basically by that I mean it
may play around with the departure and arrival times but in general birds as far as
migrating clue in a lot more towards length of stay and things like that. While we may see
fluctuations of a week or so when birds come and I believe they are still gearing up for that
migration it’s are going to do so and that's a lot based on the length of stay that really
triggers that should drive to move either to warmer climates as we're seeing in spring or
down into the tropics or southern U.S. as one might see in the wintertime.
Judy.: Do you have any information people are concerned about birds not being of the
feeder but is there any information that there are certain species that are on the decline?
Not because they're not coming here but there definitely declined?
Mark.: Yes we work with a lot of birds at Audubon Vermont with that. We have a prior
species list for both forced birds as well as birds in the Champlain Valley. In the valley
some of the birds are things like eastern toehees. A bird called golden winged warbler is
one. Another bird is the brown thresher. When you start thinking of the forests or looking
at wood thrush a bird called the Canadian warbler. For instance the wood thrush there's
been a decline demonstrated for the past 20 years with a species has slowly been going
downhill. Probably one of the groups of birds that has declined the most has been are
grasslands species. Our bobolinks our meadow larks and things of that nature that because
of things changing with weather patterns and their kind of getting squeezed. We're
different haying practices then we did back then so there are definite trends. We're the
ways folks do that is a more organized survey which is called the breeding bird survey
where people actually go out and do a road service and count birds during the breeding
season.
Judy.: If you have a bird related question please pass it along to Mark you can write to him
at Audubon Vermont 255 Sherman Hollow Road in Huntington zip code is 05462 you can
also email your questions or observations to mark his e-mail is [email protected].
Send Mark your questions and hopefully he'll be able to answer them on another edition of
Bird Notes. Thanks so much.
Mark.: You're very welcome.
Judy.: That's our program for today I'm Judy Simpson we will see you again next time on
Across the Fence.
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