Why did birds fall out of the sky in early September? (homes, university)

[Colorado Rambler]

Ornithologists believe they are getting closer to understanding why thousands of migratory songbirds literally fell out of the sky across the Southwest earlier this month, including in areas of Colorado.

The deaths hit several species seemingly without warning, including sparrows, warblers and thrushes, which were heading south to their winter homes.

Arvind Panjabi, an ornithologist with the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies, said the unprecedented discovery of hundreds of dead birds in ravines, on highways and in people’s yards could have been due in part to toxic smoke from fires in the Northwestern United States.

The extreme temperature swing during Colorado’s early September storm was also a bird killer.

“There have been a few efforts to try to understand this better,” Panjabi said. “One of those was conducted by a graduate student at the University of New Mexico who actually went out and collected some of the dead birds that had been reported, and she noted that most of them had starved. So birds that depend on flying insects for finding their food, like swallows and flycatchers, were especially hard hit by this storm. Two days of no food during the peak of migration was just too much.”

- More

This is just so sad. I have three bird feeders that I keep filled with seed year round. Lately it has seemed to me that the birds visiting my feeders had dwindled to only sparrows and finches. It would seem that I was correct in my perceptions.

These extreme weather events like the one we had earlier this month are only going to become more common, and the same is true of forest fires and the smoke which accompanies them. Here in the Four Corners there were days this last July and August when it hurt to breathe. I can only imagine the impact that this has had on many bird species. Is Colorado going to end up with its own "silent spring"? I truly hope not.

[beezle1]

Since the short cold snap, I have had lots of bees at my hummingbird feeder constantly, usually like 20 at a time. This has never happened before, so I think the cold killed off whatever the bees were usually using this time of year.

[Colorado Rambler]

Funny that you should mention that about the bees. I have noticed the same thing out here. Mother Nature seems to be unraveling a tad when it comes to the birds and the bees.