I spent over 4 hours and a total of 9.3 miles driving the roads in New Michigan State Forest counting singing male birds like I do every few years or so. This year was excellent. However, they are lumbering some of the big spruces in "stripcuts" to help regenerate young spruce. Apparently, the spruce needlecast fungus is seriously affecting the young norway spruces and they want to make sure there are plenty for regeneration in the future. I did speak with folks the NYDEC who are involved in this effort. In any event, there are areas where there was once closed canopy norway spruce that is now in strips. Plus, the 2011 tornado took out I would say about 25% of the norway spruces too. So this unique habitat is declining. I did not find any swainson's thrushes. I also dipped on the red crossbills. Fortunately, Jeremy Collinson reported both species a couple days ago.
As for numbers: 90 ovenbirds! Exact count. 61 Red-eyed vireos, 58 Blackburnian warblers, 24 Magnolia Warblers, 8 Mourning Warblers and several Canada and 15 Black throated blue warblers. Good numbers. I have noticed that birds that like openings in the forest are increasing. Here is my 2019 list https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S57655975 Here is my list in late June 2016 https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S30317959 for comparison. Here is a list from 2013:https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S14257563 (covered less area this year 5 miles instead of 9). Seems like there is still a lot of songbirds here.... Best, Dave -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
