Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!IRO.UMontreal.CA!matrox!altitude!proteus!randall From: randall@proteus.CAM.ORG (Randall Reid) Newsgroups: rec.birds Subject: Earlybirds and Where is everyone? Message-ID: Date: 26 Jun 91 12:52:10 GMT Lines: 37 I used to read rec.birds about 1.5 years ago and then stayed away from Usenet for quite a while. I restarted reading rec.birds a couple of weeks ago and really notice a change. Where did everyone go? Things used to be pretty active here both for the birders and the pet bird types. Maybe my news feed is broken but I only receive 1-3 articles per day. Is this right? Well no matter, I'll still post my message. I was at Point Pelee this spring for the second year in a row. Last year I was down for the 3rd week of May, this year the 2nd week. I am not your die-hard experienced birder but I nevertheless was happy to log about 140 species and 40+ lifers last year. This year was a different story. A real disappointment. I must confess that this year I went with my wife and my schedule was a bit off so we would arrive at the Point a bit later than usual each day. But it seems to me that there were MUCH fewer birds this year. Can anyone comment on this? Another thing I noticed was that the park didn't have any deer or other critters wandering around freely. One thing that came to mind was the unusually warm weather we had this spring. Perhaps the migrations stayed for shorter periods on the Point or maybe they came earlier than usual. Despite my bad luck I noticed that the visitors' center sighting board was filled up with birds of all kinds.. I just didn't see 'em. Can any of you more experienced birders tell me if one really has to be up at the crack of dawn to have a good birding day... I personally can't even see the little critters that early morning. even with my new B&L Elites! Last year I found that 9am seemed like an ideal time for birding.. after that it seemed to die down quite a bit. Regardless of my lack of success this year I did have one nice lifer.. a wimbrel flying over Hillman's marsh.. he must have been an overly enthusiastic individual and at the extreme northerly edge of his range. That seemed to make it all worth the 2 day drive and I'll be back again next year, this time with my alarm clock. Regards;