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Re: Silent Spring -- Kinglets



We had 4 bouts of snow and ice a month ago and we can tell some affects.
Yellow-rumped Warblers were almost nowhere to be seen for a couple of weeks
after the snows.  Ruby-crowned Kinglets and Eastern Phoebes are now very
scarce around here, but were common before the snow.  But here's the strange
part, Golden-crowned Kinglets have actually  increased in numbers.  On a
walk Saturday in northern Catawba County,  we had 30+ singing Golden-crowns.
Pine Warblers seem to be in pretty good numbers, both before and after the
bad weather.

*************************
Dwayne & Lori Martin
Foothills Bird Club
Claremont, NC
dlmartin@twave.net

-----Original Message-----
From: Harry LeGrand <Harry.LeGrand@ncmail.net>
To: carolinabirds@acpub.duke.edu <carolinabirds@acpub.duke.edu>
Date: Monday, February 28, 2000 1:55 PM
Subject: Silent Spring -- Kinglets


>Carolinabirds has not discussed the potentially tragic impact that 3
>weeks of snow, ice, and very cold weather has had on local birds.
>Obviously, we like to write about the good things -- albatrosses, Le
>Conte's Sparrows, Black-tailed Gulls, etc.
>
>But -- the impact in the Triangle was great. I have yet to find a
>kinglet of either species on three 1-2 hour walks through woods at
>Umstead State Park or Jordan Lake the past 3 weekends. These areas had
>plenty of kinglets before the storms, which began in earnest in
>mid-January. Normally, kinglets would be common now, and would be
>singing on these warm days.
>
>I suspect most of the singing Pine Warblers at Umstead this weekend are
>recent arrivals from Florida, Georgia, or South Carolina. That many
>would not have been at Umstead all winter or survived such weather. I
>also assume that a large number of various wrens and other warblers
>succumbed, as well. I would guess that we lost 75% or more of the
>kinglets, at least in the Triangle.
>
>Before everyone starts jumping in with "I saw a Ruby-crowned Kinglet"
>yesterday, it would be good to limit discussion only where folks have
>made REPEATED trips to sites with BEFORE AND AFTER information, where
>they can be fairly sure about changes in populations. If you went to a
>site this weekend and saw a bunch of kinglets, but didn't go to that
>site before the storms, that wouldn't tell us much. Plus, I doubt there
>was too much mortality in parts of South Carolina or eastern NC where
>there wasn't the 5 consecutive bouts of ice or snow.
>
>But -- Umstead had Pine Warblers singing everywhere, chickadees,
>titmice, woodpeckers -- but no kinglets. The same thing happened around
>1977 at Clemson. I tallied 10-20 each of both kinglets on a set route
>before severe weather, and 0-2 per trip after 3+ weeks of brutal cold.
>That is roughly 90% mortality.
>
>Twenty inches of snow, ice-covered limbs, etc., does take a major toll
>on birds, especially on those that feed on insects. It might take 2
>years or more for populations to recover. Time will tell.
>
>Harry LeGrand
>
>--
>Harry E. LeGrand, Jr.
>N.C. Natural Heritage Program
>Division of Parks and Recreation
>1615 MSC
>Raleigh, NC 27699-1615
>
>Office: (919) 715-8687
>Home: (919) 832-3202
>FAX: (919) 715-3085
>e-mail: harry.legrand@ncmail.net
>http://ncsparks.net/nhp
>
>