For those who missed the evening news tonight hundreds of dead Red Winged Blackbirds were discovered, this time in Louisiana. Cause of death unknown. What's going on here!

This whole thing is not unlike the empyy bird feeder discussion. Perspective required. A quick check of Christmas Bird Count results for Louisiana show that during the first decade of this century the combined CBCs for the state have logged from 1.8 to 5.6 million Red-winged Blackbirds per year. A check of Arkansas CBCs shows statewide totals as high as 2.9 million. Given the lifespan of passerine birds, the number expected to perish during a given winter no doubt far exceeds the number reported in these incidents. (Pulling a modest percentage out of my head, 5% of 5.6M is 280,000). Latest reports (not counting Internet rumors about alien involvement) on the Louisiana birds indicate they may have flown into powerlines. Vets have inspected the Arkansas birds and have found trauma. One suspected cause is high altitude hail. Winter is tough on birds. That's one reason why most of them have quite a few young. Probably the most famous documented natural bird kill in North Ameerica occurred on March 13, 1904, when northbound Lapland Longspurs encoutered heavy, wet snow over parts of Minn and Iowa. On two small lakes in Worthington, Minn., count/estimates of longspur carcasses put the death toll there at 750,000, but given the extent of the weather system some believed several million longspurs perished (source The Winter Bird-Life of Minnesota, a Minn state publication). Despite having endured an event of this magnitude, Lapland Longspur is nonetheless categorized by Bird of North America Online as: "Species abundant; not currently considered threatened or of concern anywhere in North America." As far as Red-winged Blackbirds go, B of NA Online says: "Perhaps the most abundant bird in North America. Winter population in U.S. was estimated to be 190 million in 1974-1975." Greg Hanisek Waterbury ----- Original Message ----- From: "Paul Desjardins" <paul.desjardins2@gmail.com> To: <ctbirds@lists.ctbirding.org> Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2011 7:04 PM Subject: [CT Birds] it"s happened again! > For those who missed the evening news tonight hundreds of dead Red Winged > Blackbirds were discovered, this > time in Louisiana. Cause of death unknown. What's going on here! > _______________________________________________ > This list is provided by the Connecticut Ornithological Association (COA) > for the discussion of birds and birding in Connecticut. > For subscription information visit > http://lists.ctbirding.org/mailman/listinfo/ctbirds_lists.ctbirding.org > >

THANK YOU GREG for the great information! Winter is super tough on birds. And we all thought we had it tough! It makes one thankful for what we have. I am. So, keep loading up all those feeders for our feathered friends. Cheers, Mardi Dickinson Norwalk, CT On Jan 4, 2011, at 10:52 PM, "Greg Hanisek" <ghanisek@rep-am.com> wrote: > This whole thing is not unlike the empyy bird feeder discussion. Perspective required. A quick check of Christmas Bird Count results for Louisiana show that during the first decade of this century the combined CBCs for the state have logged from 1.8 to 5.6 million Red-winged Blackbirds per year. A check of Arkansas CBCs shows statewide totals as high as 2.9 million. Given the lifespan of passerine birds, the number expected to perish during a given winter no doubt far exceeds the number reported in these incidents. (Pulling a modest percentage out of my head, 5% of 5.6M is 280,000). Latest reports (not counting Internet rumors about alien involvement) on the Louisiana birds indicate they may have flown into powerlines. Vets have inspected the Arkansas birds and have found trauma. One suspected cause is high altitude hail. Winter is tough on birds. That's one reason why most of them have quite a few young. > > Probably the most famous documented natural bird kill in North Ameerica occurred on March 13, 1904, when northbound Lapland Longspurs encoutered heavy, wet snow over parts of Minn and Iowa. On two small lakes in Worthington, Minn., count/estimates of longspur carcasses put the death toll there at 750,000, but given the extent of the weather system some believed several million longspurs perished (source The Winter Bird-Life of Minnesota, a Minn state publication). Despite having endured an event of this magnitude, Lapland Longspur is nonetheless categorized by Bird of North America Online as: "Species abundant; not currently considered threatened or of concern anywhere in North America." > > As far as Red-winged Blackbirds go, B of NA Online says: "Perhaps the most abundant bird in North America. Winter population in U.S. was estimated to be 190 million in 1974-1975." > > Greg Hanisek > Waterbury > > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Paul Desjardins" <paul.desjardins2@gmail.com> > To: <ctbirds@lists.ctbirding.org> > Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2011 7:04 PM > Subject: [CT Birds] it"s happened again! > > >> For those who missed the evening news tonight hundreds of dead Red Winged Blackbirds were discovered, this >> time in Louisiana. Cause of death unknown. What's going on here! >> _______________________________________________ >> This list is provided by the Connecticut Ornithological Association (COA) for the discussion of birds and birding in Connecticut. >> For subscription information visit http://lists.ctbirding.org/mailman/listinfo/ctbirds_lists.ctbirding.org >> > > > > > _______________________________________________ > This list is provided by the Connecticut Ornithological Association (COA) for the discussion of birds and birding in Connecticut. > For subscription information visit http://lists.ctbirding.org/mailman/listinfo/ctbirds_lists.ctbirding.org