May is for the birds. So during the first five days of May I participated in three Bird Walks. On the first I went to Tibbets Brook Park in Yonkers. Rockefeller State Park was the site of my regular monthly Bird Walk on Saturday the 4th. On Sunday the 5th I journeyed to Central Park with the local Audubon Society. That’s a lot of birding in five days.
Although the calendar says it is spring and the weather agrees, the spring migrants, especially the warblers, did not get the message. I only saw five species of warblers despite being at the right place at the right time. And it isn’t just me. All birders are where are the birds? Even the legendary Central Park was devoid of warblers.
Am I disappointed? Well, yes and no. All winter you look forward to spring so it is somewhat of a let-down when it does meet the high expectations you dream of. On the other hand, I did enjoy all my birding. The weather was beautiful and I saw a lot of other spring birds, just not as many warblers as hoped for.
Why so few warblers? There are two theories making the rounds. The first is the weather. (It is always easy to blame the weather.) Winter lingered this year. So warblers are running late because of cooler temperature affected trees, bugs and everything natural.
The second theory blames Super Storm Sandy. Because so many trees were blown down and so much habitat destroyed, the birds did not find the metro area as inviting as in the past. So they just did not stop but overflew NYC and moved farther north.
Your theory is probably as good as either of these. But human nature is such that we have to find something to blame when life doesn’t go the way we hoped.
I did hear from a friend who was birding at McGee Marsh in northwest Ohio. He spotted 22 species of warblers in one day. Maybe that is where all the warblers went.
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