GTA
All Springer/NP/PCP Air Gun Discussion General => PCP/CO2/HPA Air Gun Gates "The Darkside" => Topic started by: DMR214 on September 15, 2021, 12:15:46 PM
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Just wondering if anyone else has noticed a shortage of flying critters.. Did i eradicate all the ones near me.(nonsense) ? I haven't seen any starlings,crows, hosp, around my area in quiet some time. (Except for the shopping centers which are full of them)I also have a bunch of cotton aphids this year that did some damage to the trees nearby. Maybe that's the culprit. It used to be fun protecting my song birds, now not so much as they too have disappeared.
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Notice the same up here, but chalked it up.to the drought we are in currently. Figured they all went else where for now.
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it's been the same for me the last several months. Some days I don't see any critters.The Eurasian doves used to be around a lot, but I haven't seen one in 2-3 months. The mourning doves are starting to show up since it's starting to get cooler. Hopefully the other critters will show up soon.
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Oddly...noticed a whole lot more in the last week...also many more noticeable squirrels.
Blamed it on Hurricane Ida and time to just sit and watch….whatever they were eating in the trees is now on the ground; we notice that a lot more. The big ones that eat the little ones are also more noticeable (hawks, kites, owls, etc).
So are the rodents (sketchy trash pick up)….which is my current air gun target.
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Always had a bunch around here and than one day it went quiet and none to be seen for the most part.
Seen a few back around since than but it did seem odd.
No drought here and I don't shoot them.
Still seems less than usual since that day but at least I see them.
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Same here. Also a lack of insects (food source). Drought?
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I think the birds are a good predictor of weather particularly this time of year as we are getting close to Fall and then Winter.
The humming birds have already left our area, Portland, Me. Starlings, Redwings and Robins left close to a month ago which I found a bid early.
Chickadees, Tufted Titmouse,Nuthatch and Woodpeckers are feasting heavily at the feeder.
The next couple of weeks show the nights getting into the forties so the birds are packing on the calories.
Summer was very stingy this year for us and the maple trees leaves are already starting to turn to their Fall colors particularly as you get away from the coast and head north.
This trend points to cooler than normal Fall.
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Around here the starlings have started their fall flock. Saw a flock of probably over a thousand the other evening while driving home. They were making some great views and they flew in different formations.
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Just wondering if anyone else has noticed a shortage of flying critters.. Did i eradicate all the ones near me.(nonsense) ? I haven't seen any starlings,crows, hosp, around my area in quiet some time. (Except for the shopping centers which are full of them)I also have a bunch of cotton aphids this year that did some damage to the trees nearby. Maybe that's the culprit. It used to be fun protecting my song birds, now not so much as they too have disappeared.
Maybe had something to do with the freeze you all had earlier this year. We aren’t seeing as many hummingbirds up here in Colorado Rockies like we usually do and people have said that the freezing weather down south earlier in the year killed a lot of them off.
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Just wondering if anyone else has noticed a shortage of flying critters.. Did i eradicate all the ones near me.(nonsense) ? I haven't seen any starlings,crows, hosp, around my area in quiet some time. (Except for the shopping centers which are full of them)I also have a bunch of cotton aphids this year that did some damage to the trees nearby. Maybe that's the culprit. It used to be fun protecting my song birds, now not so much as they too have disappeared.
in addition to that THIS has become a bigger problem by far than DDT ever was! link; https://www.facebook.com/GrowingDeer/videos/853965182189752/?extid=CL-UNK-UNK-UNK-AN_GK0T-GK1C (https://www.facebook.com/GrowingDeer/videos/853965182189752/?extid=CL-UNK-UNK-UNK-AN_GK0T-GK1C)
And this is a danger to Loads of different life forms. Potentially US as the neuro toxin is present in all parts of the plant it is likely being cosumed by humans of all ages in our food products.
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Same here. Also a lack of insects (food source). Drought?
Drought conditions certainly can affect bird populations via a absence of insects but we are experienceing serious absence of many bird species regardless of rainfall levels. Once again folks people are not paying attention to what science authorities are saying. We are in an ongoing extinction event. World wide numbers of bird species are dropping at in geological terms, amount to light speed.
Maybe had something to do with the freeze you all had earlier this year. We aren’t seeing as many hummingbirds up here in Colorado Rockies
" But new research published Thursday in Science shows bird populations have continued to plummet in the past five decades, dropping by nearly three billion across North America—an overall decline of 29 percent from 1970. ... Grassland-dwelling birds such as sparrows and meadowlarks have been hit especially hard.Sep 19, 2019 "
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We had a single Hummingbird at our feeder last night about 6 p.m., haven't seen any this morning, I think they're gone for the year.
The robins have been gone since September 1st and the starlings and hosps have been flocking like mad this last week.
Blue Jays are back and feeding like mad. Sandhill cranes are disappearing this week and large formations of geese are moving to the South this week as well.
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It's complicated... as to the disappearance of birds as well as other species.
"Ken Rosenberg, a conservation scientist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, said he and his coauthors figured the bird losses were driven by a number of overlapping causes, habitat loss chief among them.
Marie Perkins, assistant professor of wildlife ecology at University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point, described her research examining mercury levels in songbird feathers from seven species. She found that mercury increased over time in six of the seven bird species she studied, with samples collected after 2000 showing two to 17 times more mercury than historic samples.
Air pollution was “the major source” of mercury contamination, according to Perkins."
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/birds-need-clean-air-safeguards-just-as-much-as-we-do-heres-why/ (https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/birds-need-clean-air-safeguards-just-as-much-as-we-do-heres-why/)
"Extinct volcanoes are coming back to life"
https://watchers.news/2020/01/02/extinct-volcanoes-are-coming-back-to-life/ (https://watchers.news/2020/01/02/extinct-volcanoes-are-coming-back-to-life/)
https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/why-are-we-having-so-many-earthquakes-has-naturally-occurring-earthquake-activity-been?qt-news_science_products=0#qt-news_science_products (https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/why-are-we-having-so-many-earthquakes-has-naturally-occurring-earthquake-activity-been?qt-news_science_products=0#qt-news_science_products)
https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/1995/fs216-95/pdf/fs21695.pdf (https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/1995/fs216-95/pdf/fs21695.pdf)
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I quick Googled a couple things, & I wasn't even aware about an illness causing birds to loose vision, among others diseases this year. Crazy, how this stuff isn't really gaining attention.
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https://www.livescience.com/bird-dieoff-eastern-united-states.html#:~:text=Scientists%20have%20ruled%20out%20the,the%20illness%20is%20still%20unknown.&text=Hundreds%20of%20young%20starlings%2C%20blue,dying%20from%20a%20mysterious%20illness. (https://www.livescience.com/bird-dieoff-eastern-united-states.html#:~:text=Scientists%20have%20ruled%20out%20the,the%20illness%20is%20still%20unknown.&text=Hundreds%20of%20young%20starlings%2C%20blue,dying%20from%20a%20mysterious%20illness.)
have been hearing about this all summer on my local NPR affiliate (WAMC)
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Plenty here. West Nile devistated them a few years back. Possibly the WooHan is killing them.
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A few months ago I noticed a lot of dead starlings, crows, finches, etc on the road when I was running. I then read an article that no one can figure out why this is happening. I'm sure Cornell or some college will figure it out or at least minimally point out a map of what areas.
Then I read that deer have corona virus in them or something like that; I believe Cornell found that out. I'm sure if I felt like searching for it, I'd find it...
Hummingbirds just left early last week. Of course right when a make a fresh batch of sugar water for them... oh well, I'll use it for cooking.
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For the deer question: https://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_health/one_health/downloads/qa-covid-white-tailed-deer-study.pdf (https://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_health/one_health/downloads/qa-covid-white-tailed-deer-study.pdf)
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Sparrows and starlings ban from back yard. They seem to be doing fine our front on the street lol. The bully of the backyard white wing dove they throw a mean wing elbow. Blue jays busy raiding the pecan tree since daylight. Had a pair of Baltimore Orioles moving about the pecan tree.
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Sparrows and starlings ban from back yard. They seem to be doing fine our front on the street lol. The bully of the backyard white wing dove they throw a mean wing elbow. Blue jays busy raiding the pecan tree since daylight. Had a pair of Baltimore Orioles moving about the pecan tree.
I can just imagine the vibes , nice breeze, birds chirping, bottles poppin, and airguns,, well gunnin..
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No shortage of birds here in Tn around me, but I also feed them every other day and will soon be moving to every day as cooler weather approaches. Electric wires toward dusk just covered in thousands of starlings around town, but not many near my house, guess the word got out.
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Jinxed it, I literally got swarmed by starlings yesterday and had some humming birds a few feet from my shooting table.
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seems like the more pellet rifles sold the less birds there are
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Not here in Maine because I recently saw a large flock of starlings taking a break on some powerlines.
No doubt heading on their way to Tenn and Texas ;D
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I have noticed this since spring. No morning bird sounds all summer into fall. No robins at all. Even starlings are few and far between, -good, on that one! The silence has been creepy. I am in a country rural location in NH, so it's not just a city/congestion problem.
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I love hunting, I never understood shooting birds..unless they are doves and your eating them
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If you really love birds(I do too) than you really need to educate yourself with the starling problem in the U.S., and while you're at it, watch Ted Bier's videos on house sparrows. It's not about fun, or a challenge, these birds are destroying native songbird populations.
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Not here in Maine because I recently saw a large flock of starlings taking a break on some powerlines.
No doubt heading on their way to Tenn and Texas ;D
I think they just made it to tx . I've been seeing huge flocks around the shopping centers now.
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Starlings are coming thru again, flocks of a hundred or so this morning in the field across the road.
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Had some land in my backyard today at 90 yards, managed to get 1 on scope cam. Also caught 1 at 70 yards.
https://youtu.be/YT3mHdmS9us