Quote:
Originally Posted by Green's Basin Girl
There haven't been any song birds coming to our feeders in months. All I see is an occasional blue jay or crow. I haven't seen any chickadees, nuthatches, tufted titmice, etc. Are there others who aren't seeing many birds?
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We haven't had much nesting success at our acre.
Although the authors (below) try to make a case for some mitigation for "tolerant" species, it seems that anthropomorphic noisemaking has had its effect on our songbirds:
Quote:
"Anthropogenic noise has been implicated as a cause of declines in avian species diversity and densities; however, these patterns are not conclusive because noise has not been uncoupled from the many potential confounding variables that accompany noisy human activities, such as physical alteration of habitat, edge effects, or moving traffic or equipment.
"During the summers of 2005-2007, we isolated noise experimentally through use of natural gas wells with noisy compressors as experimental treatment sites and wells without compressors as control sites.
"Noise significantly reduced nesting species richness; however, species tolerant of nesting in areas with high noise levels benefited from increased nest success due to lower levels of predation. In areas with high amplitudes of anthropogenic noise, predators may be present, but unable to locate nests, or they are in lower densities or absent – thereby benefiting species tolerant of anthropogenic noise through an increase in nest success.
"Species intolerant of noise may suffer two-fold: through exclusion from noisy habitats that may otherwise be suitable, and because they are subject to more natural levels of nest predation when nesting in less noisy habitats. This disparity between the higher nesting success of noise tolerant species and lower nest success of noise intolerant species may further contribute to declines in species richness and diversity in and around human-altered landscapes.
http://citation.allacademic.com/meta...f0ebcde34e7993
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Lawnmowers, pile drivers, fireworks, motorcycles, and the newest "switchable" boat muffler laws are taking its toll on
particularly our Thrush population.
In Wolfeboro, I haven't heard any of the best Thrush songsters these past two seasons.
(And there are
six of them in the Thrush family).
