Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Declining Bird Populations ? More Climate Change Bullschitt ?

They would have nested in hollow trees in old growth forests

Well, dang it all to hell. I learned something new again today.

Never knew dragonflies migrated. Just figured, like many insects with aquatic life stages, that the adults attempted to overwinter in vegetation or rock cavities and such, and the juveniles overwintered in the bottom mud or underwater vegetation.

Interesting stuff folks, thanks

Geno

PS, on a good note, we've seen a Stellar's Jay here the past couple of days. Scrub and pinyon are common. Stellar's are generally up the hill in the pine/fir forest around here. I'm thinking it's getting ready to go south, or perhaps hang around for the winter here on the sage flats and ranchlands.

Here where I live, we have a couple of Blue bird types, one bigger than the other, and those along with field Larks declined about the same time as the quail. All of these birds have made a large come back, but not the quail. I am still thinking West Nile Virus had a big hand in it. miles

I think you're right Miles. I think the cottonpoison got the quail. They were disappearing before the fireants got here.

Cool season grass fields over warm season grass really hurt quail. They can’t thrive in fescue.

Hmm.....news just reported 3.7 billion birds killed by cats every year.

I’m gonna get a cat and name it “global warming”

LOL! I know Snyper. I was just being my sarcastic self again!!

A 12 for tiny little tiny quails?

I thought 12s were for geese,Turkey, cranes, swans, chicken haw, uh, ducks, deer and dimocraps?

Model 12 Winchester! TC Johnson’s mechanical miracle for anything that flies!!!

My daughter is a senior in wildlife biology and what they have seen is tall buildings especially ones with a lot of glass are responsible for the deaths of literally millions of migratory song birds each year.

We have quite a few birds here now that were not around when I was growing up. Eagles (bald and golden) buzzards - ravens and quite a few smaller birds of different varieties. We have resident honkers that were never here in the winter a so many snow geese come through there is now a spring season. The only bird I notice that has been down in numbers for years now is our ruff grouse. Conditions here are about the same as 50 years ago but the ruffs have virtually disappeared. Edk

I'll bet there is quite a bit of truth to your daughter's findings. Last year, I lost at least a half dozen male cardinals who flew into my window glass and killed themselves. I blame myself to some degree, because the area around my cabin is littered with bird feeders that I keep filled with sunflower seeds throughout the winter to help the little critters out. So I'm sure I am attracting them to my little spot in the woods from miles around. I have walked outside on many a snowy winter morn to literally hundreds of birds, half of which I have to look up in the audubon book, just to see what they are. I tell myself the small loss of life is offset by the amount of birds that make it through the winter because of the buffet.

If I had to add to the list of culprits, I would say an unchecked raccoon population. I know they predate nests pretty hard. Their population in my neck of the woods is out of control.

As a matter of fact, I would say predators such as hawks, coyotes, and raccoons do more damage to the bird population, especially ground-nesters than probably anything else, save for maybe feral cats. That being said, we don't have too many feral cats running around where I live.

My wife put 2-3 inch strips of blue painters tape on a couple of our front windows. Not a single bird we know of flew into a window after that. Took some getting used too but it turned into a conversation piece when folks were visiting.

They must not be counting Eurasian Doves.

If the earth got warmer there would be more birds.

Wind turbines are the biggest killers of all birds. To save the planet, they slaughter birds on an industrial scale. But that's okay apparently.

Ill have to give that a try this year, thanks.

Do you just put a big "X" across the windows?

No just 2-3 inch strips of the thin painters tape ( I think the 3/4 inch wide stuff ) just scattered randomly across the inside of the window. I'd guess she probably put 12 or so of those pieces on each standard sized window.