Influence of the CO/WY fires on birds

[DAVID A LEATHERMAN]

A lot of people have been asking about what the recent fires causing much of the smoke along the Front Range and out on the eastern plains are having on birds.  While it is normal for many mountain species to be undergoing dispersal and altitudinal migrations at this time of year, I think it is fairly safe to say one species that has been impacted by the upper montane zone fires (upper reaches of ponderosa pine/Douglas-fir, lodgepole pine and lower reaches of spruce-fir) is Mountain Chickadee, and maybe so some extent Black-capped Chickadee.  Pretty much everywhere I have been in the last two weeks has them: Lamar, Eaton Cemetery, Cherry Creek Reservoir, Jackson Reservoir, Grandview Cemetery in Fort Collins, Crow Valley.  Reports from birders on COBIRDS and eBird have reported them at many other low elevation sites.  This feels like more of them down low and out east than is normal. 

Jays are another group that historically wanders at this time of year, so it is tough to say about them being influenced by the fires.  But if we get reports of things like Clark's Nutcrackers and Canada Jays out east, more reports of Pinyon Jays way east of I-70, large numbers of Woodhouse's Scrub-Jays continuing down and east all winter, then maybe it would be somewhat safe to speculate about an influence on them from the fires, too.

This type of thing is good to document, so I encourage the continuation of reports. 

And if anyone hears the results of autopsies conducted on the dead birds found in New Mexico and elsewhere in the West, please share that information on COBIRDS.

Dave Leatherman

Fort Collins

[Thomas Heinrich]

David,

Thank you for all your fascinating and informative posts!  Here is a link posted to Birdchat by Paulo Boute a little while ago:

Sharing:

https://www.kut.org/post/surprising-reason-thousands-birds-dropped-dead-across-southwest

Thomas Heinrich

Boulder, CO

Nyc...@aol.com

On Oct 6, 2020, at 12:46 PM, DAVID A LEATHERMAN <daleat...@msn.com> wrote:



--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+u...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CY4PR0601MB37631D79EB99C47243DACCDFC10D0%40CY4PR0601MB3763.namprd06.prod.outlook.com.

[Donald Jones]

Hi Dave et al,

Up in Laramie, Wyoming I have been keeping my eyes peeled for signs of montane wanders possibly displaced by the Mullen Fire burning ~30 miles to our west. So far, I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary. I did have a single Mountain Chickadee in the greasewood at Hutton Lake NWR, out in the middle of the Laramie Plains, but that is not particularly remarkable for this time of year. The situation in town is obscured somewhat by the fact that we routinely get montane species dispersing downslope from the Laramie Range, which is much closer to the east. My guess is that most of the birds displaced by the Mullen Fire, at least, have moved only a short distance, either downslope to the foothills or horizontally to unburned areas of the forest.

Don Jones

Laramie, WY

[Hugh Kingery]

Denver Audubon just had a report from Susan Nobles of a Steller's Jay in her Aurora yard, Peoria & Alameda. Farther east than normal.

Hugh Kingery

[Meg Reck]

I also had a Steller’s Jay in my Aurora yard yesterday. Near Buckley and Mississippi. 

Meg Reck

Arapahoe 

Sent from my iPad

On Oct 7, 2020, at 4:13 PM, 'Hugh Kingery' via Colorado Birds <cob...@googlegroups.com> wrote:



Denver Audubon just had a report from Susan Nobles of a Steller's Jay in her Aurora yard, Peoria & Alameda. Farther east than normal.

Hugh Kingery

--

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+u...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/1873910131.343881.1602108768530%40mail.yahoo.com.

[Robert Raker]

Thanks Dave for this explanation. I was scratching my head when I saw six Steller's Jays fly overhead at Bluff Lake in Denver on Monday.
Rob Raker

Lakewood, CO

[Robert Raker]

Thanks for this Dave. I was scratching my head when I saw 6 Stellar's Jays fly by on Monday at Bluff Lake. Hadn't thought that the fires might have been a factor.

On Wednesday, October 7, 2020 at 4:37:47 PM UTC-6 m.rec...@comcast.net wrote:

[Scott Somershoe]

Chiming in a little late. I've also seen a bunch of Mountain Chickadees in my yard and neighborhood in Littleton, JeffCo., next to Clement Park.  Before a couple weeks ago, I had one yard record, now I have up to 3 daily in the yard (yay!). There's also been a flock of Steller's Jays around S Platte Delta area at Chatfield. I saw about 10 (silent group!) a few weeks ago from the Heronry overlook in Douglas County. 

To add to the discussion, I looked at eBird to see if there was a discernible difference in the number of reports of Mountain Chickadees and Steller's Jays in the Denver area for Aug-Oct 2019 and 2020.  See attached the jpegs.  Pretty noticeable influx this year for both species. There's been a pretty good number of Mountain Chickadees across the SE plains recently as well (not shown in my maps, you'll need to explore eBird). There's also been a bunch reported in the OK panhandle this week as well, plus Cassin's Finch, Steller's and Woodhouse's Scrub Jays, even Evening Grosbeak, and a super rare for OK Black-capped Chickadee. This could be a really interesting winter!

As others have said, Pinyon Jays can be highly nomadic in fall and winter when food resources in their home ranges are scarce. There often seems to be a lone bird or a small group that turns up in weird places far from where they usually occur.

That said, I'd encourage everyone who is inclined to use eBird, to continue reporting your birds to help document the apparent unusual movement of some species out of the foothills and mountains and into the plains. 

Scott Somershoe

Littleton CO