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Irruptive Bird Survey findings
- To: carolinabirds@acpub.duke.edu
- Subject: Irruptive Bird Survey findings
- From: Allison Wells <amw25@cornell.edu>
- Date: Mon, 06 Dec 1999 12:55:30 -0500
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
Greetings, Carolina birders--
There have been posts to Carolinabirds regarding sightings of winter
finches, and some of you have been putting your sightings into the
Irruptive Bird Survey database(BirdSource, http://www.birdsource.org).
Thank you! We wanted to give you a summary of what the data are revealing.
Based on reports, the winter finch most on the move as of early December is
EVENING GROSBEAK. Flocks of several dozen have been reported in
Pennsylvania and New Jersey, with larger flocks appearing in New York,
Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. Movements have been limited primarily to
the Northeast, which could prove useful in light of a recent trend analysis
conducted by BirdSource researchers on a subset of Christmas Bird Count
data. The analysis showed that, after several decades of increasing
numbers, Evening Grosbeaks are now experiencing declines in the Northeast,
which could be due to any number of factors (this analysis is currently
being featured at the Birdsource web site).
COMMON REDPOLL reports have also picked up. An irruption of this species
was first evident in the Great Lakes in late October. Sightings in the
Northeast have started to really pick up since ear late November. Small
flocks of PINE GROSBEAKS are also being reported from New Hampshire,
Connecticut, New York, and some parts of Pennsylvania.
One species we're particularly interested in this year is NORTHERN SHRIKE.
As many of you know, this bird appears unpredictably throughout portions of
the northern U.S. in the winter. Reports through December show a major
Northern Shrike irruption across New England. More surprising, however, are
the reports as far south as central New Mexico. There's evidence that
shrike irruptions coincide with Snowy Owl movements, so we'd really
appreciate it if you would help us get SNOWY OWL reports into the
BirdSource database so we can look for more about this correlation.
There are other patches in the data, too, that only birders like you can
fill. We'd like to know what was really happening with Red-breasted
Nuthatches early on, for example. More data are also needed for Purple
Finch. And what about Bohemian Waxwings?
If you see any of these species or other irruptives, we would really
appreciate it if you would take a minute to enter them into the BirdSource
database. And take a look at the tables and maps your data are helping create.
Best in birding,
Allison Wells and the BirdSource team
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Ithaca, NY
birds.cornell.edu
www.birdsource.org