Re:[nysbirds-l] Death on the Beach

2017-06-21 Thread J GLUTH 
A search of eBird data (Explore Data -- Species Maps -- filters: Great 
Shearwater - May and June - Current Year - Massachusetts) produced 
results that indicate a corresponding lack of Great (and Cory's) 
shearwaters from Cape Cod and coastal New England waters (Block Island 
to Maine) as a whole: https://tinyurl.com/y8j4fqg7


Compare the low number of map pins, checklists and number of shearwaters 
reported this year, to the same period in 2016: 
https://tinyurl.com/y9ga2eyb


2015: https://tinyurl.com/y9fbmjqp

and 2014: https://tinyurl.com/yacldwsb

I have monitored the MA listserv - http://birding.aba.org/maillist/MASS 
- on a fairly regular basis during the Spring and Fall migration periods 
over the past several years. In 2016 the anecdotal evidence from posts 
to that list (as well as the eBird data linked to above) indicate that, 
while 2016 was an exceptional year in terms of the high numbers of 
shearwaters, 2017 is shaping up to be at the opposite extreme. This year 
the combination of factors in the Atlantic (whatever they may be) that 
has wrecked Great Shearwaters in NY waters, also appears to have stymied 
their progress to their "wintering" grounds farther north as well.




--

NYSbirds-L List Info:
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm

ARCHIVES:
1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html
2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L
3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01

Please submit your observations to eBird:
http://ebird.org/content/ebird/

--

Re:[nysbirds-l] Death on the Beach

2017-06-21 Thread J GLUTH 
A search of eBird data (Explore Data -- Species Maps -- filters: Great 
Shearwater - May and June - Current Year - Massachusetts) produced 
results that indicate a corresponding lack of Great (and Cory's) 
shearwaters from Cape Cod and coastal New England waters (Block Island 
to Maine) as a whole: https://tinyurl.com/y8j4fqg7


Compare the low number of map pins, checklists and number of shearwaters 
reported this year, to the same period in 2016: 
https://tinyurl.com/y9ga2eyb


2015: https://tinyurl.com/y9fbmjqp

and 2014: https://tinyurl.com/yacldwsb

I have monitored the MA listserv - http://birding.aba.org/maillist/MASS 
- on a fairly regular basis during the Spring and Fall migration periods 
over the past several years. In 2016 the anecdotal evidence from posts 
to that list (as well as the eBird data linked to above) indicate that, 
while 2016 was an exceptional year in terms of the high numbers of 
shearwaters, 2017 is shaping up to be at the opposite extreme. This year 
the combination of factors in the Atlantic (whatever they may be) that 
has wrecked Great Shearwaters in NY waters, also appears to have stymied 
their progress to their "wintering" grounds farther north as well.




--

NYSbirds-L List Info:
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm

ARCHIVES:
1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html
2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L
3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01

Please submit your observations to eBird:
http://ebird.org/content/ebird/

--

Re: [nysbirds-l] Death on the Beach

2017-06-20 Thread Michael Schrimpf 
Hi all,

Just to follow up - the link to the paper by Haman et al. is here

(including
the abstract). I think the full text is behind a paywall for most, but send
me an email if you would like a pdf.

The authors have some evidence that on at least one occasion a wreck of
Great Shearwaters may have been caused by poor food conditions in the South
Atlantic, during their molting period prior to migration. These birds make
the crossing of the low-productivity Tropics quite quickly, and travel past
Long Island just before arriving at their "early winter" feeding grounds
off of Massachusetts. It's possible that poor conditions somewhere very
distant would cause them to start the journey without full reserves. We are
only beginning to learn the details of the migration patterns in a lot of
seabirds, and there are still plenty of unanswered questions in the field.

I'm eagerly awaiting the results of the necropsies being performed on the
collected specimens.

Michael Schrimpf
Setauket/
Stony Brook University

On Tue, Jun 20, 2017 at 5:26 PM, Shaibal Mitra 
wrote:

> I spent several hours at Democrat Pt today, carefully checking the entire
> wrack line, and found 14 dead Great Shearwaters and a dead Leatherback
> Turtle (the folks in Riverhead have been notified).
>
> http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S37704445
>
> I also just heard through Derek Rogers that dead Great Shearwaters have
> been found on the beach at Montauk.
>
> To me, the simultaneous deaths of these shearwaters, along with the Brown
> Booby and the Leatherback Turtle, seem more than a coincidence and are
> suggestive of something wrong out there in the blue water, probably
> relating to food.
>
> At this point, it seems that the weather pattern described by David
> Nicosia probably played a role in concentrating these animals in our area,
> but would not in itself have caused their distress. Andrew Farnsworth has
> described major sea surface temperature anomalies in the Atlantic; this
> sort of thing could have big impacts on marine food webs, and it is
> possible that the birds encountered food shortages over larger areas and
> longer periods than they could tolerate. Finally, Michael Schrimpf alerted
> us to a paper describing 12 mass mortality events involving Great
> Shearwaters on the US Atlantic Coast (GREAT SHEARWATER (PUFFINUS GRAVIS)
> MORTALITY EVENTS ALONG THE EASTERN COAST OF THE UNITED STATES. Journal of
> Wildlife Diseases, 49(2), 2013, pp. 235–245 # Wildlife Disease Association
> 2013. Katherine H. Haman,1,2 Terry M. Norton,2 Robert A. Ronconi,3 Nicole
> M. Nemeth,1 Austen C. Thomas,4 Sarah J. Courchesne,5 Al Segars,6 and M.
> Kevin Keel7,8).
> I haven't read this yet, but a quick scan reveals not only that many GRSH
> involved in strandings were emaciated, but also that in some cases they had
> swallowed plastic.
>
> We await further data on the scale of the wreck, and on the condition of
> the specimens that have been salvaged.
>
> Shai Mitra
> Bay Shore
> --
>
> NYSbirds-L List Info:
> http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm
> http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm
> http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm
>
> ARCHIVES:
> 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html
> 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L
> 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01
>
> Please submit your observations to eBird:
> http://ebird.org/content/ebird/
>
> --
>
>

--

NYSbirds-L List Info:
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm

ARCHIVES:
1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html
2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L
3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01

Please submit your observations to eBird:
http://ebird.org/content/ebird/

--

Re: [nysbirds-l] Death on the Beach

2017-06-20 Thread Michael Schrimpf 
Hi all,

Just to follow up - the link to the paper by Haman et al. is here

(including
the abstract). I think the full text is behind a paywall for most, but send
me an email if you would like a pdf.

The authors have some evidence that on at least one occasion a wreck of
Great Shearwaters may have been caused by poor food conditions in the South
Atlantic, during their molting period prior to migration. These birds make
the crossing of the low-productivity Tropics quite quickly, and travel past
Long Island just before arriving at their "early winter" feeding grounds
off of Massachusetts. It's possible that poor conditions somewhere very
distant would cause them to start the journey without full reserves. We are
only beginning to learn the details of the migration patterns in a lot of
seabirds, and there are still plenty of unanswered questions in the field.

I'm eagerly awaiting the results of the necropsies being performed on the
collected specimens.

Michael Schrimpf
Setauket/
Stony Brook University

On Tue, Jun 20, 2017 at 5:26 PM, Shaibal Mitra 
wrote:

> I spent several hours at Democrat Pt today, carefully checking the entire
> wrack line, and found 14 dead Great Shearwaters and a dead Leatherback
> Turtle (the folks in Riverhead have been notified).
>
> http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S37704445
>
> I also just heard through Derek Rogers that dead Great Shearwaters have
> been found on the beach at Montauk.
>
> To me, the simultaneous deaths of these shearwaters, along with the Brown
> Booby and the Leatherback Turtle, seem more than a coincidence and are
> suggestive of something wrong out there in the blue water, probably
> relating to food.
>
> At this point, it seems that the weather pattern described by David
> Nicosia probably played a role in concentrating these animals in our area,
> but would not in itself have caused their distress. Andrew Farnsworth has
> described major sea surface temperature anomalies in the Atlantic; this
> sort of thing could have big impacts on marine food webs, and it is
> possible that the birds encountered food shortages over larger areas and
> longer periods than they could tolerate. Finally, Michael Schrimpf alerted
> us to a paper describing 12 mass mortality events involving Great
> Shearwaters on the US Atlantic Coast (GREAT SHEARWATER (PUFFINUS GRAVIS)
> MORTALITY EVENTS ALONG THE EASTERN COAST OF THE UNITED STATES. Journal of
> Wildlife Diseases, 49(2), 2013, pp. 235–245 # Wildlife Disease Association
> 2013. Katherine H. Haman,1,2 Terry M. Norton,2 Robert A. Ronconi,3 Nicole
> M. Nemeth,1 Austen C. Thomas,4 Sarah J. Courchesne,5 Al Segars,6 and M.
> Kevin Keel7,8).
> I haven't read this yet, but a quick scan reveals not only that many GRSH
> involved in strandings were emaciated, but also that in some cases they had
> swallowed plastic.
>
> We await further data on the scale of the wreck, and on the condition of
> the specimens that have been salvaged.
>
> Shai Mitra
> Bay Shore
> --
>
> NYSbirds-L List Info:
> http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm
> http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm
> http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm
>
> ARCHIVES:
> 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html
> 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L
> 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01
>
> Please submit your observations to eBird:
> http://ebird.org/content/ebird/
>
> --
>
>

--

NYSbirds-L List Info:
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm

ARCHIVES:
1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html
2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L
3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01

Please submit your observations to eBird:
http://ebird.org/content/ebird/

--