Where Are The Birds?

The other day, the one day last week that was not cold, dark and rainy, I went for a long walk as much for exercise as for seeing what birds were around. I went to my usual patch, a linear park not far from me called Patriots Path. 

Patriots Path (Margo D. Beller)

After more than an hour of walking and listening to jays, robins, cardinals, catbirds, Carolina wrens and many other of the more common birds of the area, I was on my way back to the car when I was stopped by a woman walking her dog. "Are you looking for birds?" she asked, looking at my binoculars.

This has happened before, and I wondered if she was going to tell me about seeing some strange bird she couldn't identify. But no. What she said was, "Have you noticed there are fewer birds? Is something environmental happening to them?"

I wasn't sure by "environmental" whether she meant chemicals killing birds, which is certainly a major hazzard. So are cats, both those domestic ones allowed to roam outdoors by their owners and the feral ones I sometimes see passing through my yard.  

To her I blamed the weather, specifically Tropical Storm Ophelia and other storms that have blown through the eastern United States. When Ophelia was going up the coast, the winds were mainly out of the east. If a bird was trying to head south, I said, it would likely go west to avoid the headwinds. "The midwest is probably seeing a bumper crop of birds," I said.

She seemed reassured and thanked me.

A potential bird hazzard, if allowed outside.
(Margo D. Beller)

After I got home I thought about our conversation. Besides chemicals and cats there is the possibility of birds being blown into trees by high winds. Or hit by cars as they fly low across the road (robins and sparrows are prone to this, I've found). 

Then I found this article, which gave me another perspective - a hurricane - Lee - so strong the birds were blown across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe, where "common" birds I find daily in my travels are "rarities" over there. Lee, a category 5 storm, blew hard along the East Coast, and I expected to see reports of birds showing up in places where they are normally not found.

That happened with flamingos after Hurricane Idalia, when the pink birds associated with Florida and the tropics started being reported in Wisconsin, Texas and Ohio. One area's "common" is another's "rarity," even within the United States. But I never expected birds to be blown so far to the east by Hurricane Lee.

So are there fewer birds? Depends on where you go. Back in my area I have found lots of the more common birds and, once in a while, a migrant bird passing through on its way to its southern wintering grounds. But that is because I have taken myself outside to look for them. I don't usually go birding in the rain. I don't even put out feeders in the rain. And we've had a ton of rain lately.

The rain-swollen Whippany River along Patriots Path.
(Margo D. Beller)

Maybe the woman I spoke to sees fewer birds now than before because she is out more often with her dog in all types of weather and has more of a basis of comparison. Maybe what she sees confirms what Audubon has warned about the decline in U.S. birds.   

Where are all the birds? I have to believe they are still out there. You and I just have to go find them.