Here's the scenario: large numbers of migrating passerines are moving south towards NYC during Fall migration, at 4:00 AM they're flying high on calm air. Just before dawn the eastern horizon brightens the birds start looking around for where they're going to rest and feed for the day before the next night of heading south. The sky starts to brighten up as the sun peaks over the edge of the horizon. Now it's time to go down, but they're right over downtown Manhattan. It's random, they could be anywhere, they started out maybe southern Maine along the coast after sunset the day before. Ok, so they're over a huge urban area filled with human-built infrastructure. Doesn't matter, they're tired, dehydrated, very hungry, have to go down. They look for green or Fall foliage, they need what trees have to offer, shelter, food (insects etc.) and fresh water. Down they go into the Manhattan migrant mecca, Central Park. But they also go to every little park there is in the city, pocket parks with just a few trees, that's all they need to make it through another day. Many birds are killed crashing into tall buildings during the night, and some crash into mirror-like glass windows during the day (what's a window to a northern forest bird?). Many of these birds are young of the year, they've never seen a city before, all the hazards are new. Every city park and open land with trees large and small and enough understory and ground cover save many, many more birds than the buildings and glass kill. -AJ
[email protected] wrote: > ENTS, > > Thanks for the feedback. > > I hope I get over there often enough to get a pic of an adult > sapsucker and a better look at the tree for id help. > > The Parks Dept. may want to use the bamboo idea! They are pretty > trees. There are a few American Elms, plenty of London Planes, lovely > ginkgos (I think this is my favorite city tree), and the ubiquitous > Japanese Pagoda that do so well. > > I think the migration issues are both the lights at night and then, > during the day when the migrating birds land in a park to forage they > get confused by the vegetation reflections. > > I am a bad person because, while I am very sad about the dead birds > and their plight along the eastern seaboard, I also think it's cool to > get to see all these different species really close-up. I hope this > is just a phase.... > > Jenny > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Andrew Joslin <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Sent: Thu, Oct 22, 2009 9:36 am > Subject: [ENTS] Re: Will this tree survive the woodpeckers? > > > It's a first-year YB Sapsucker so it doesn't have adult plumage yet. > They seem to target particular species or individual trees of a species > for a variety of reasons. Sometimes the trees are already stressed or > the sapsuckers like their flavor. The sapsuckers also create sap flow to > get insects stuck which they eat. They're only working on the trees in > that NYC park in Spring or Fall migration but over the life of the tree > the drilling holes accumulate. You'll often see two trees of the same > species side-by-side with sapsuckers working on only one of them year > after year. In the Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Mass. the > sapsuckers are heavily attracted to Nikko Firs for example but in the > Arnold Arboretum in Boston, the Nikko firs have very little if any > sapsucker damage. Very interesting birds, nice video Jenny. > > Note on migrating bird collision death in cities: > These migrating birds are moving primarily at night, NYC is at a focal > point in the east coast migratory flyway, when lights are on in > buildings at night it confuses the birds navigation systems and they > will fly toward the lights. This is most common on cloudy or foggy > nights but happens on any strong migration movement night for instance > when there is a good north or northwest wind. > -AJ > > [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> wrote: > > Doesn't appear to be a yellow sapsucker and the holes are not aligned > > in a close enough pattern, another woodpecker perhaps? I have seen > > large trees killed by repeated damage such as this when enough cambial > > tissue is killed. A neat way to prevent sapsuckers from killing small > > trees is to tie a long piece of bamboo to the tree trunk which > > interrupts their hole boring pattern, won't help in this situation > > though. Nice video. Greg. > > On Oct 21, 11:26 pm, JennyNYC <[email protected] > > <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > > > >> Hi! > >> > >> Erstwhile member Jenny here! > >> > >> I was walking through this nearby park on 5th Ave. and 23rd st. and > >> saw all these woodpeckers pummeling the several species of this tree! > >> How long will a tree like this last?? I don't think the tree is id- > >> able from my video (even by Steve G.!), but anyone know the species of > >> woodpecker? Yellow-bellied sapsucker? (The buildings shown in the > >> video are responsible for hundreds of songbird deaths every migration > >> season. Macabre birding NYC-style: go find the dead migrating birds! > >> They slam into the buildings because reflect the foliage and branches > >> of trees.) > >> > >> Video is 1:45. And it's cute, if wobbly. > >> > >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZqOnThRcGg > >> > >> Thanks! > >> Jenny > >> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org Send email to [email protected] Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
