As a follow-up to my last post about the tardiness of migration this last spring, I wanted to use our trip to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument as an example. Lang Elliott and I recorded recorded here in late March of 2017. The expected compliment of birds was there, behaving as I’d come to expect from many years of living in the far eastern Sonoran Desert near Tucson. Some of the birds that winter elsewhere but breed in the Sonoran Desert, such as White-winged Doves, had arrived and were singing. The curve-billed thrashers had quit singing and were probably sitting on their nests. The other permanent residents were singing up a storm.
But this year was different. We arrived in Organ Pipe on April 9, 2 weeks later than we had been there in 2017. And yet the winter birds were still singing, with Brewer’s Sparrows and Scott’s Orioles, who normally migrate out of the area to breed elsewhere, adding to the dawn chorus. The Curve-billed Thrashers were still singing up a storm.
Most recordists would be ecstatic to record these lovely dawn choruses (and we were), but we still couldn’t help feeling something was “off.” Where were the White-winged Doves and Bell’s Vireos that normally add so much to the dawn chorus? And why were the Brewer’s sparrows, White-crowned Sparrows, and Scott’s Orioles still here? We wouldn’t run into White-winged Doves and Bell’s Vireos until we hit south Texas in mid-April. Overall, it seemed like breeding activity of the birds was delayed by at least 3 weeks.
Three weeks is a long time, when you have only a short window to nest and raise your chicks before the weather turns either too hot or too cold depending upon where you decide to breed. And as dry and extreme as the weather has been this spring in the west (very cold and very hot), it’s hard to imagine that bird populations won’t be impacted. Throw in loss of habitat due to wildfires (and wildfire prevention), and things are not looking great for our birdy friends, at least in the short term. So throw some kind thoughts toward the birds you see, consider adding a water dish to your yard if you haven’t already, and plant some food and cover plants for them.
Here is the dawn chorus from 2017:
Have you noticed anything odd with the birds in your area this year?
I was wondering about the distribution of the Scott’s Oriole, so I just checked the map via All About Birds. Apparently, some do breed in Organ Pipe, especially in the northern half of the park. Let me know what you think: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Scotts_Oriole/maps-range
Hi Lang, According to the charts on ebird, it does look like they are pretty absent during the winter, so perhaps they were early harbingers of spring.
I do not pretend that there is anything scientific about my observations. However, I spent all winter in Florida and only returned to my home town of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in late May. One of the first things I noticed is that the bird chorus seemed to be more like the April chorus than the May/June chorus. I cannot provide specifics, other than to say that the bird activity and sounds gave me the impression that mating season was in full swing, at a time when many birds would normally have built nests and perhaps laid eggs.
Thanks for your observations, Gary. They sound similar to what we heard in the southwest. Might be similar at my home in northern Nevada, but I haven’t documented the “normal” timing of bird activity here to know if things are different.
Chris, as always, a terrific post. Thanks!
Thanks, Steve!