My own impression from northeast Ohio is that the breeding bird population is 
fairly normal, with an apparent lack of Scarlet Tanager. I checked with a 
couple of friends who are involved with different kinds of breeding bird 
surveys, and their impressions are the same as mine. 

Laura Gooch
Cleveland Heights

--- On Mon, 6/17/13, david nicosia  wrote:

> From: david nicosia 
> Subject: Re: [nfc-l] [nysbirds-l] Minimal Migration or Population Decline?
> To: "Joan E. Collins" , "'Christopher T. 
Tessaglia-Hymes'" 
> Cc: "'NYSBIRDS-L'" , "'NFC-L'" , 
"'Sean O'Brien'" , "'Chris Rimmer'" , 
"northern_ny_bi...@yahoogroups.com" 
> Date: Monday, June 17, 2013, 9:58 PM
> This is
> anecdotal. But each year I do an informal survey of the
> singing males at NewMichigan
> State Forest in Pharsalia Chenango County, NY. I try very
> hard to not recount birds and
> I have been doing this almost yearly since 2009.
> This is a boreal like forest...one of
> the few you can find
> outside the Catskills and Adirondacks in the
> highlands of central NY. This year I found all
> typical boreal breeders to be as common as
> past years. BLACKBURNIAN, MAGNOLIA WARBLERS were
> most abundant like other
> years as well as tons of OVENBIRDS. My total numbers were
> a bit down but I did not
> have time to do a couple roads that I did past
> years. If I did these
> roads I have no doubt
> numbers who have been comparable to other years.
> The dawn
> chorus was very active. This
> is just one
>  spot....so hard to make any conclusions here.
>  
> I
> am assuming this is just this year for many of you? If so,
> it has to be weather related. If
> it is a gradual decline through the years...then one would
> think it could be habitat changes...possibly wintering grounds and/or
> breeding grounds?? 
> Of
> course, if resident birds are not as common either as has
> been stated...is there a disease
> affecting birds???
> let's
> hope they rebound. Quite spring/summer woodlands is just
> downright depressing. 
>        
> From: Joan E.
> Collins 
>  To:
> 'Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes'
>  
> Cc:
> 'NYSBIRDS-L' ;
> 'NFC-L' ; 'Sean
> O'Brien' ; 'Chris
> Rimmer' ;
> northern_ny_bi...@yahoogroups.com 
>  Sent: Monday,
> June 17, 2013 3:35 PM
>  Subject:
>  RE:[nfc-l] [nysbirds-l] Minimal Migration or Population
> Decline?
>    
> Hi Chris/All,
>  I am out every day and I have not
> noticed any improvement.  As I walk through the forest
> (or bogs), the lack of birds is all I can think about. 
> I am surprised this has not been a dominant discussion on
> our NYS Birds list serve.  It is so disturbing and
> everyone is anxiously awaiting BBS data for this year –
> but of course roadside surveys don’t work well for many
> species.  I can barely find a Lincoln’s Sparrow (I
> jump up and down when I hear one now) – a species that is
> normally abundant in our Adirondack bogs.  Canada
> Warbler numbers are way down.  I have also noticed the
> same lack of species that you listed (although, I have
>  not noticed a lack of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds in
> northern NY).  Indigo Bunting is another species that
> is hard to find.  Scarlet Tanager, Veery….I could
> keep going…
>  Chris Rimmer, Director of the Vermont
> Center for Ecostudies, emailed about the lack of neotropical
> migrants in e-central VT, and he is hearing the same thing
> from others – how quiet the forests are this spring. 
> He has noticed that Swainson’s Thrush numbers are down up
> on Mount Mansfield in VT.  I’ve been finding a few
> more on dawn tours up Whiteface Mountain since the Memorial
> Day Weekend 3-foot snowfall melted away.  I plan to
> conduct the Mountain Birdwatch survey of that peak on
> Thursday, and the results should shed some light on
> Swainson’s Thrush numbers (at least in high elevation), in
>  addition to numbers for all the other species we tally for
> that survey (I have the data from last year to compare
> to).  Jeff Nadler, photographer, just
> emailed about a 3 day trip he took to boreal habitat areas
> in northern VT & NH, which he visits every year, and the
> lack of birds this year.  He noticed not only a lack of
> neotropical migrants, but also a lack of year-round boreal
> species!  He echoed the same thing everyone is noticing
> – the forests are “quiet” with no loud dawn
> chorus.
>  I think we are all wondering the same
> question: “What happened?”  I hope this question
> will eventually have an
>  answer.
>  Joan CollinsLong Lake, NY
>    From:
> Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes [mailto:c...@cornell.edu] 
> Sent: Monday, June 17, 2013 11:17 AM
> To: Joan E. Collins
> Cc: NYSBIRDS-L; NFC-L; Sean O'Brien
> Subject: Re: [nysbirds-l] Fwd: Minimal Migration
>  or Population Decline?  Thank you, Joan, for this
> anecdotal evidence. Since it has been a couple of weeks now,
> I'm curious to know if anyone has noted an improvement
> in their local area birding spots, or if it has been more of
> the same. For me, I've noted a serious lack of typical
> neighborhood birds that used to be a regular part of the
> acoustic atmosphere: Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Baltimore
> Oriole and Red-eyed Vireo, just to name a few. I've also
> noticed a lack of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds this year –
> usually, they are zipping around and chittering in the
> neighborhood. Not so this year, yet anyway. If this is
> region-wide, I'd think it critically important to
> collect as much data as possible to help monitor or track
> this seeming dearth of activity. I expect this fall
> migration to be fairly telling, if there was a
> pop-ulation-wide impact of some
>  kind. 
>  Sincerely,Chris
> T-H
>   
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