Frozen Out
Extremely low temperatures and dangerous wind chill conditions kept the numbers of both bird sightings and observers low during the Jan. 6 bird count in Butler County.
Chris Kubiak, the development associate for the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania, said the annual bird census, which started at midnight and ran until 11:59 p.m., was affected by morning temperatures of minus 8 and wind chill factors reaching 25 below zero.
“It was brutally cold,” said Kubiak who got to experience the temperature firsthand when he went out at 6 a.m. to look for owls.
“We had 25 observers (in 2017 there were 67) which was down purely because of the weather,” said Kubiak.
“It was a dedicated crew that was coming out and I appreciate it. It was dangerously cold,” he added.
He said the observers were divided into 13 field parties that went out to spot and record birds in a circular area centered around Mars and running west to Zelienople, south to Cranberry Township, east to the Route 228 corridor and north to Penn and Connoquenessing townships.
“The bird count was absolutely affected by the weather,” he said. “Some of the species were hunkered down and some of them actually moved out of the area.”
He noted the robin and cedar waxwing sightings were way down from 2,000 robins and 400 cedar waxwings in 2015 to three robins and one cedar waxwing on Jan. 6.
“The fruit-eaters may have moved out of the area, may have moved farther south,” Kubiak said, noting the observers found no waterfowl during the day “except for one lonely and cold great blue heron.”
“There were no mallards or no other waterfowl, which wasn't surprising considering 95 percent of the ponds and creeks were frozen over. The waterfowl had moved to the rivers which still had open water,” said Kubiak.
There were also steep declines in the number of turkeys and American kestrels sighted this year.
Still, the observers managed to spot 51 bird species which, he said, “is not bad all things considered.”
Several feathered newcomers to the county were reported, including the Eastern towhee and the swamp sparrow which was spotted at Glade Run Lake.
Kubiak said, “The Eastern towhee normally migrates out of here. It eats seeds and insects and is found scraping at the forest floor.”
He also noted 36 ring-billed sea gulls and one herring gull were spotted.
“Some are resident around Moraine and some are coming down from Canada,” he said.
Speaking of Moraine State Park, the Bartramian Audubon Chapter's annual bird count Dec. 16 in a 15-mile-diameter circle centered just north of the state park also turned up a scarcity of robins, said Mary Alice Koeneke, co-compiler of the results with Glenn Koppel.
“We had a total, including feeder watchers, of 57,” said Koeneke, adding the count period ran from 8 a.m. to sunset.
“Seventy-four species were found. Everything was as it was before with the notable exception that there were very few American robins. The weather had moved the species on,” said Koeneke. “They were very few compared to past years.”
“I'm cautious if the declines mean anything,” said Kubiak. “Still it is extremely important from year to year to see what is happening to the bird population.
“The kestrels, is that something really going on or is it just a reaction to the weather?” he asked.
Still, Kubiak said, “it's very useful to have citizens collect data to enter into the database. It's just interesting to compare.
“This is our sixth year of data compared to more than 80 years in the Pittsburgh region. The more data, the stronger the patterns emerge.”
