Subject: Re. late spring
Date: Jun 6 23:05:17 1999
From: Jack Bowling - jbowling at direct.ca


Michael Price wrote -

<<<
Jack Bowling writes, regarding my plaint of winter overstaying its welcome
here:

>Correct, even though coloured by a certain amount of hyperbole.

Not hyperbole. Simple reporting.>>>

Oops.. forgot the smiley :-) The hyperbole was meant to refer to your
assertion that you have suffered at the hands of low pressure systems
from October 1998 onward. As it happens, April was rather storm-free
(although cool).

Anyway, decided to go to the mountains and see for myself if I could
sense any effects of the late spring on the birds. It was the Mt.
Robson Bird Blitz weekend the past 48 hours. A very wet and cool one at
that. We usually manage around 100-105 species - this year we got 105
despite the lousy weather. Most everything was back on time, and
where expected. However, there were some anomalies:

- flocks of Am. Pipits at valley bottom level still; oodles of snow not
too far up gave one a good idea why.
- Hammond's Flycatchers foraging within the first three feet above the
ground like Alder Flycatchers; must have something to do with insects
hugging ground level rather than being high up; nice not to have to
endure "Hammond's Neck" by the Sunday evening.
- *way* more Rufous Hummingbirds at valley level than normal; must be
the mid elevation complement added to the normal valley dwellers;
everyone thought they were going to be impaled by dive-bombing
hummers.

But - contrary to the current thinking that a cold spring keeps
everything in the valleys, a N. Saw-whet Owl with chicks was discovered
in a cavity near the Kinney Lake parking lot on Saturday at an
elevation of almost 1000 meters. Just happened to be a first record of
the species for the park, too (rather inexplicably).

Bottom line is that things do not seem to be as clear cut as first
thought regarding effects of a late spring on mountain dwelling birds.
Wilson's Warblers were widespread below snow level suggesting that they
just stay downslope if the mid elevations are buried, as do the
hummers. However, I don't know if species such as the pipits can
breed successfully away from the alpine.

And there were definitely very few biting bugs around due to the
weather. This must have a negative impact on nesting birds.

-------
Jack Bowling
Prince George, BC
jbowling at direct.ca