Silent Birds

[bobm]

Last week in the early morning as I was taking the garbage cans to the roadside for the garbage truck to pick up, there was a fledged robin sitting on the sidewalk. As I approached, it hopped under a bush. About an hour later when I whent to pick up the empty garbage cans, the fledged robbin was dead . I buried it. Since that day, there were NO robins, or any other birds that I could see or hear anywhere. NO robins, crows, jays, blackbirds, not even the VERY NOISY starling fledglings that were begging all day the day before. Then this moring at 5 AM, the male robins were making their territories known, crows and jays are at it again. Anyone have any ideas as to what is going on ?

 

[digitS']

I have certainly noticed that there are fewer robins this year.

The 2015 drought may have lowered the population. The "water guy," who really must be at retirement age, was commenting how people had kept their lawns green in previous years and how they "let them go," last year. That must be kind of tough on the robins.

Notice how the eastern foothills of the Cascades received so much winter snow. As soon as it melted, there was a fire. There needs to be some consistency because all of that vegetation (or what is left of it) must have suffered damage from the drought.

(The good news might be that Wenatchee had a record rain over the weekend - if that didn't cause erosion problems.)

I have read that crow life expectancy steadily decreases depending on the distance they live from city centers. I bet that is true for all birds. It's kind of sad to think that Robins, a native bird that seems fairly comfortable living close to humans, is likely to live a better life where humans are not so common. Probably their own population density puts special strain on them when weather conditions are not good.

Your weather must have been cool and rainy the last few days, as well. Fledging may not have come at quite the right time. I know that the recent weather change sure caught me off guard!

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

I haven't noticed fewer robins...maybe they all came to my house?
There are always several out there in the yard and splashing in the bird bath.
They especially seem to be enjoying this wet weather. Must make the worms come to the surface.

 

[seedcorn]

Humans = cats = bird predator

 

[Nyboy]

I just had a talk this weekend about if animals under stand death. My friend had to put her 16 year old dog to sleep, she bought her younger dog with them so he could see old dog was gone and not look for her. i know animals can grieve just not sure how much they understand. Some farmers hang coyotes they shot from fences to warn off others.

 

[Nyboy]

Bob do you think the dead baby was why the other birds where quiet ?

 

[digitS']

I posted a thread a couple months ago about arrangements in Sweden (was it?) for young people to live with elderly people. I'm not sure if some of our 20 year olds understand death ...

Okay, there was something on teevee the other day about preschools being built into nursing homes. I thought it was great but the reporter asked if the children could adjust to the loss of their elderly visitors through death. The person asked said that not even 5 year olds understand enough to be affected.

Steve

 

[bobm]

Bob do you think the dead baby was why the other birds where quiet ?

... I don't know. There was maybe an hour's time between when I first saw the baby robin on the sidewalk and untill it's death. The interesting thing was that all other birds ( jays, crows, blackbirds, starlings,sparrows, etc. )were all up and about before it's death , then one and all just dissapeared from sight and sound untill 5 AM this morning. I have found other dead birds here in the past but every other bird still whent about their business as usual. I also hunt so bird harvest death did nothing in their behavior to it's kin or other bird species.

 

[so lucky]

DH sometimes shoots starlings that hog the suet feeder, or otherwise make themselves obnoxious. He has witnessed the other starlings go up to the dead one and watch it, nudge it, pick at it but not as if to eat it. They seem to know something is wrong.

Some people advocate allowing a beloved dog or cat to see their human after the human passes. We have all heard or read accounts of a pet waiting in the same place for its human to come back, so maybe they would understand if they saw the person deceased.

 

[so lucky]

... I don't know. There was maybe an hour's time between when I first saw the baby robin on the sidewalk and untill it's death. The interesting thing was that all other birds ( jays, crows, blackbirds, starlings,sparrows, etc. )were all up and about before it's death , then one and all just disappeared from sight and sound untill 5 AM this morning. I have found other dead birds here in the past but every other bird still whent about their business as usual. I also hunt so bird harvest death did nothing in their behavior to it's kin or other bird species.

@bobm, did you check to see if there was an earthquake in that area?