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There are no birds (almost!)



HI . . .

Regular readers of CarolinaBirds, BirdBand, and/or BirdChat will 
recollect that I have made several postings over the past few months 
lamenting the dearth of birds at Hilton Pond near York, South 
Carolina, and in the central Piedmont.

Some of you poopoohed me privately and said it was just all the mild 
weather we were having and that the birds were out dining on natural 
foods and that they'd be flocking to the feeders at the first sign of 
bad weather (see below). Nonetheless, I was confident the weather was 
only part of the problem and felt somewhat vindicated when I compiled 
the York/Rock Hill Christmas Bird Count. This year's count had only 
2,890 individuals--by far the all-time lowest number of individuals 
(7,673 is average, 12,000+ is the high).

What I haven't revealed until now is that my 1999 banding totals at 
Hilton Pond were also miserably low and bore out my contention that 
"there are no birds." My 18-year average for birds banded in a 
calendar year is 2,008 individuals and 71 species, and I only managed 
to capture 1,359 birds from 71 species in 1999. (My record high is 
4,061 individuals and 95 species in 1991.) Some of this drop was due 
to severe declines in "winter finches" (House Finch, Purple Finch, 
American Goldfinch, and Pine Siskin), which make up 44% of the 36,170 
birds banded since 1982 but that have not occurred in big numbers in 
several years. In addition, the migratory warblers were drastically 
under-represented in both spring and fall migration in 1999, and even 
common residents like Blue Jays, Northern Mockingbirds, and Eastern 
Towhees were well below their average annual numbers.

So the bad news is that bird numbers really do appear to be down, as 
documented by observation AND banding results. The predicted droughts 
of 2000 and a possible return of the dreaded El Nino certainly won't 
help bird life in the Carolina Piedmont--nor will the global warming 
trend that is being coming more evident with every valid data set.

The good news is that last week I finally got my first Purple Finches 
of the winter, and now I'm up to seven for 2000. (I get my rays of 
sunshine where I can and choose to ignore that my annual average for 
PUFI is 269, with a record of high of 697 back in 1987!)

And, just to admit that "bad" weather can sometimes be "good," last 
night's sleet storm did indeed bring in the first American 
Goldfinches of the year (six of them), and, even more exciting, the 
very first Pine Siskin since I banded six of them back on 10 January 
1996. (The last "big" siskin year was 1988, when I banded 252, but 
the record was 482 in 1987.)

Even more exciting is the fact that along with these "new" finches, 
I've retrapped several "old" ones in the past week, including Purple 
Finches (two fifth-year, two after-fifth-year, and one sixth-year), 
Dark-eyed Juncos (one after-third-year, and one fifth-year), 
White-throated Sparrows (one third-year, one fourth-year, and one 
sixth-year), and an American Goldfinch (fifth-year). Several of these 
had been retrapped one or more times after their original bandings 
that occurred as early as October 1995.

So, for those of you who've read this far, my news is a mixed bag. 
Let's hope the bag is half-full instead of half-empty!  :-)


Happy Birding & Banding!

BILL


**********

BILL HILTON JR.
"The Piedmont Naturalist"
Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History
1432 DeVinney Road
York, South Carolina 29745
USA

e-mail: <hilton@rubythroat.org>

Voice & Fax: (803) 684-5852

Operation RubyThroat Website: <http://www.rubythroat.org>


"Never trust a person too lazy to get up for sunrise or too busy to 
watch the sunset."

						BHjr.

**********