Here in Skamania County, at the west end of the Columbia River Gorge, before the smoke we were seeing about 28 species a day with a fair number of migrants including days with seven species of warblers. When the smoke arrived we dropped down to averaging a little over half of that number with only 16 species and just one Orange-crowned and one MacGillivray's Warbler today and low numbers of everything except Band-tailed Pigeons. I have been putting out chicken scratch several times a day as we have been getting multiple different sized flocks of pigeons per day. Wilson Cady
Columbia River Gorge, WA

---------- Original Message ----------
From: Dennis Paulson <dennispaulson at comcast.net>
To: TWEETERS tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Subject: [Tweeters] bird numbers
Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2020 15:53:17 -0700

Hello, tweets.

A couple of friends have asked me about bird numbers and environmental factors in the Seattle area. They feel they really have seen fewer birds in their yard in the last few weeks, more than was to be expected by random movement and dispersal of juveniles. Has anyone else noticed such a thing? I’m really not sure about our yard, as all the species are still here, but it does seem as if there is a bit less activity than before. Reading about the die-off in New Mexico certainly makes me apprehensive about our bird populations.

We have had a very slow flow of migrants. Today an Orange-crowned Warbler and two Hermit Thrushes at once visited the yard. One of them wouldn’t let the other one in the fountain, definitely behaving as a hermit.

Dennis Paulson
Seattle
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