Subject: [BIRDCHAT] Gray Jays decline in Algonquin Park (fwd)
Date: Jun 8 20:08:13 2002
From: ian paulsen - ipaulsen at krl.org


HI ALL:
in case someone might be interested?

Ian Paulsen
Bainbridge Island, WA, USA
ipaulsen at krl.org
A.K.A.: "Birdbooker"
"Rallidae all the way"

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 8 Jun 2002 21:25:23 -0400
From: Jean Iron <jeaniron at SYMPATICO.CA>
To: BIRDCHAT at listserv.arizona.edu
Subject: [BIRDCHAT] Gray Jays decline in Algonquin Park

Dear Birders,

I thought you'd be interested in the spring issue of the Raven, the
newsletter of Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario. There are twelve issues
every year. Many issues feature birds. It's free in the park. All of the
Ravens are written by Dan Strickland, who is also the world's expert on the
Gray Jay. Below I summarize some of Dan's findings on the effects of
climate change on Gray Jays that are reported in lastest Raven.

Algonquin is near the southern limit of the Gray Jay's range in eastern
North America. The Algonquin study population has declined by over 50%
since the 1970s. Analysis by Dan Strickland and his study partner Tom Waite
of Ohio State University shows that the decline is associated with a
significant rise in the park's winter temperatures and a trend towards
lower annual production of young birds. The long term prospects are that,
with continued warming, Gray Jays may disappear from the Algonquin Park
altogether. This does not mean that Gray Jays will go extinct, but it does
mean that birders will have to go north of Algonquin to reach areas where
it is cold enough for Gray Jays to survive.

Also in this issue of the Raven, Dan tells about his recent visit to China
to study the Sichuan Jay, one of three species in the genus Perisoreus. The
other two species are the Siberian Jay of northern Eurasia and the Gray
Jay. The Sichuan Jay lives in high mountain forests of spruce and fir south
of the Gobi Desert. The juvenile Sichuan Jay is so similar to the dark
juvenile Gray Jay that Dan was not sure he could have told the difference.
Dan fears that the isolated Sichuan Jay may go extinct as the world's
climate continues to warm because its range cannot retreat northward like
that of the Gray Jay.

Where is Dan now? Since March he's been on Anticosti Island, Quebec, the
very large island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence where he's studying Gray Jays
breeding in an area that doesn't have Red Squirrels. That's another story
that Dan will tell soon.

Enjoy Algonquin's birds,

Ron Pittaway
Minden and Toronto


Jean Iron
President
Ontario Field Ornithologists
9 Lichen Place
Toronto ON M3A 1X3
416-445-9297
e-mail: jeaniron at sympatico.ca
www.ofo.ca

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