Bird decline

[Wayne SW/MO]

I realize that the easiest approach is to look at one thing, make a quick decision and attack, but I have to point out a few things.

Songbirds have declined in the last 40 years, so could it be Sparrows? Well they have been here 150 years, so why did they start a decline in their competitors 40 years ago? Starlings, cats, snakes, hawks, Blue Jays, they all take some toll, but thats been going on for 100 years.

What has dramatically increased in the last 40 years is mans obsession with order. We buy an acreage for development and cut every tree and bush, we pave part of it, cover part of it with houses, and whats left we strip of of any bugs or seed producing plants, or seed producing wild plants. We plant nice open trees and shrubs that keep the pesky pooping birds from nesting, kill the bugs so they can't eat, and most of all get rid of any plants that drop seeds or fruits on the nice lawn, even if the birds would clean them up eventually. We like "ornamentals", they look nice but no seeds or fruits like a messy native Crabapple which we can replace with a Flowering Crab that produces no food for critters.

No Meadowlarks on the fences? How about no fence rows, how about Fescue instead of native grasses, how about no bugs or seeds, no food, no where to nest or hide?

On 76 west of Branson they've cleared a ridgetop and the sides down to dirt and rock, its probably a 360 or bigger, and there's nothing left for any wild animal, but it will produce more humans. I'm sure they animals that were pushed out aren't going to find an uninhabited area to populate, so I suppose most will die off taking others with them in the process because of overcrowding in an area nearby.

So my vote for the most detrimental animal to birds is you.

[gonefishin]

Well, give me a couple of days and let me see if I can get an offical 'ruling' if you will from MDC. Ha! Better make it a couple of weeks!LOL!!

Or even a couple of years.

[Chief Grey Bear]

I realize that the easiest approach is to look at one thing, make a quick decision and attack, but I have to point out a few things.

Songbirds have declined in the last 40 years, so could it be Sparrows? Well they have been here 150 years, so why did they start a decline in their competitors 40 years ago? Starlings, cats, snakes, hawks, Blue Jays, they all take some toll, but thats been going on for 100 years.

What has dramatically increased in the last 40 years is mans obsession with order. We buy an acreage for development and cut every tree and bush, we pave part of it, cover part of it with houses, and whats left we strip of of any bugs or seed producing plants, or seed producing wild plants. We plant nice open trees and shrubs that keep the pesky pooping birds from nesting, kill the bugs so they can't eat, and most of all get rid of any plants that drop seeds or fruits on the nice lawn, even if the birds would clean them up eventually. We like "ornamentals", they look nice but no seeds or fruits like a messy native Crabapple which we can replace with a Flowering Crab that produces no food for critters.

No Meadowlarks on the fences? How about no fence rows, how about Fescue instead of native grasses, how about no bugs or seeds, no food, no where to nest or hide?

On 76 west of Branson they've cleared a ridgetop and the sides down to dirt and rock, its probably a 360 or bigger, and there's nothing left for any wild animal, but it will produce more humans. I'm sure they animals that were pushed out aren't going to find an uninhabited area to populate, so I suppose most will die off taking others with them in the process because of overcrowding in an area nearby.

So my vote for the most detrimental animal to birds is you.

Well, I have to agree with you there. Man doesn't do much to help.

Or even a couple of years.

I'm in pretty good with a research scientist for the MDC. I have sent an email so I should hear something in a couple of days. Hopefully he isn't out of town.

[jdmidwest]

I don't know about man being a threat to all birds. Most benefit from the artificial feedings we do in the summer and winter. As a kid growing up, I rarely saw a hummingbird, but now with all of the feeders there are lots of them. Also, the supplemental bird feedings during the winter helps the birds through the winter.

Feral cats and house cats are the biggest killer of birds and rabbits in my neck of the woods. I have several broods of robins killed off by the neighbors cats each summer by the feathers I find in my yard. And thanks to the restocking of Redtail hawks, the quail and rabbits have disappeared.

[gonefishin]

How long has it been since you saw one of these. I used to see them a lot when I was a kid.

[jcoberley]

Last week on my backyard fence. However I was telling Frances that it had been years.

[Al Agnew]

While it's true that redtailed and other hawks kill a lot of rabbits and quail (especially rabbits, I don't think they get many quail, though coopers hawks probably get a few), the hawks wouldn't kill nearly so many if the rabbits had better habitat. My brother-in-law took over the family farm, which had few rabbits (pastured for many years). He planted all kinds of food plots, but the best thing he did was go through the extensive cedars on the hillsides and cut and hinge them, leaving them on the land. The rabbit population exploded...there were so many rabbits we started hunting them with .22s because getting a limit with a shotgun was too easy. But after 10 years or so, the cedars were only skeletons, and suddenly we started noticing that predators, from hawks to bobcats to coyotes, were now decimating the rabbits, even though the rabbits still had plenty to eat. My own 40 acres is another good example. I have hawks all over the place, but I've got great cover for rabbits with brushy fencerows and warm season grasses, and the hawks seldom get a rabbit...I usually count 8-12 each evening, long before dark, as I drive down the quarter mile lane to the house.

Point is, if you have good rabbit and quail cover, predators don't really make much of a dent. If the cover is marginal, the predators really do a job on them.

As far as songbirds...I've noticed a major decline in them around the house. Our 40 acres is varied habitat, from woods full of big white oaks to cedar thickets to warm season grass to food plots to brushy fencerows to nice aquatic habitat around our pond. We've identified around 150 different species of birds on our land in the 15 years we've lived here. But a lot of those species were seen only in the first few years. Our bird population has gotten less and less diverse. It's been 4 years since we've heard a whippoorwill. It's been several years since we've seen a purple finch...the non-native house finches have totally replaced them. We see fewer warblers every year. Our population of native sparrows is way down. No summer tanagers anymore. Orioles are rare. It's been at least five years since we've seen or heard a dickcissel, or a shrike. The meadowlarks are still here, but fewer than they were. Haven't had kingbirds for a couple of years. All these used to be common. Now, we have huge numbers of goldfinches, house finches, plenty of cardinals, plenty of downy, hairy, and redbellied woodpeckers, still have chickadees and titmice and nuthatches, lots of redwinged blackbirds...everything else is only occasional or rare.

[jdmidwest]

Anyone have any numbers on how West Nile has affected the bird populations? I know crows and bluejays were hit hard. I have noticed the whippoorwills have been quite, did not hear many turkey season or out camping.

[gonefishin]

Last week on my backyard fence. However I was telling Frances that it had been years.

That is an evening grosbeak. Used to see them by the hundreds when I was a kid but I haven't seen one for years.

I love to hunt quail but they are getting so scarce I haven't been able to bring myself to hunt them for several years.

[Crippled Caddis]

'Clean' farming practices that have virtually eliminated hedgerows and overgrown fencelines has been one of the worst things that ever happened to our small game and upland gamebirds. Not only did the fencerows provide unexcelled habitat but it also provided cover for migration, breeding and rearing and a diverse plant community that produced a bounty of food for the native species. The introduction of Fescue has hardly helped as it doesn't provide usefull cover as do native plants and grasses.

Like gonefishing I have given up Quail hunting and for the same reason. Even though I have planted a lot of food sources for small game and birds, built brushpiles and allowed as much overgrown brushy areas as I can prevent my wife from mowing we simply have too many coyotes in the area. I saw a pair of Quail cross the backyard a couple of weeks ago but I've only seen a single rabbit so far this year.

With the increase in coyotes I no longer see the occasional Bobcat and it's been several years since I've seen a Fox even tho we used to have a vixen who annually raised a litter in the little cave under a rock ledge on the face of the bluff. I blame most of it on the big ranch which borders me on two sides. @ 20 years ago they sprayed a defolient that killed all the deciduous trees, followed in a few years by bulldozers that piled the dead trees into huge windrows that were burned over a period of several years. After that the coyote population exploded, we started seeing more Bobcats (for a few years) on our own wooded acres and the Fox disappeared, dispossessed by the Bobcats IMO.

The ranch is now a picture from some country magazine. But it is a green desert for wildlife.

As to the songbirds I too have noted hearing fewer Whippoorwills and Poor Wills' Widows of late. But we still have a diverse group that nest and rear fledglings in the few acres around the house. I composed a list several years ago that I've lost but a partial enumeration would include Jays, Doves, Summer Tanagers, Indigo Buntings, Chickadees, Titmice, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Cardinals, various Woodpeckers including the Pileated, Phoebes, Wrens, Nuthatch, Barred Owl, Hummingbird, Goldfinch, Bluebirds, Crows, Brown Thrasher, Catbird and more that don't spring immediately to mind. Nor include the species that prefer the aquatic environment along the river at the foot of the bluff. I suppose that we're still among the fortunate in that respect. CC