In "Kingbird HIghway", Kenn Kaufman's remarkable and brilliant account of his youthful hitch-hiking bird-athon around America, there are many remarkable events .. and one of them was a huge "fall" of Myrtle Warblers ..... they had already watched huge numbers of them swarming in the hedgerows in appallingly cold and vicious weather, and then this ... " Back to the north on Bodie Island, Mytle Warblers were swarming along the road. Scores of them were down on the road shoulder, in the grass, searching for food. We tried making sample counts, but it was impossible. Our best wild guess was that we were seeing three thousand warblers per mile of road ... and even over the sound of the wind we could hear more, thousands more, calling in the thickets. With so many present, and food so hard to find, and the weather so rough, it seemed certain that many would not live to see the following day.We were not surprised to find several sitting on the road, inactive, eyes dull. Even the ones still up and flying were having problems; twice in ten minutes we heard a soft thud as the wind tossed flying warblers against the side of the car. ( Later) ... from behind us, loose groups of Myrtle Warblers would approach, coming from the thickets of Bodie Island. It appeared they had given up on foraging there and were moving on in a desperate search for food. The Myrtles would come past us and strike out across the inlet, struggling in the crosswind. Some were flying too low, and wave crests picked them out of the air. A few, overpowered by the wind or just disorientated, crashed into the bridge supports and fell, to be scooped up by the predatory Herring Gulls. Some of the warblers continued flying until they faded in the veil of snow. Just the night before, I had been admiring the strategy of this species. I'd been thinking that the Myrtle Warbler had it made: adapted to winter on the Carolina coastal plain, it avoided the dangers of the long trans-oceanic migration. Today we were seeing the other side of the coin. Those warblers that had taken the risky flight, that had made the long crossing to the West Indies or South America,were far beyond the reach of this death-dealing storm. But the Myrtle Warblers were caught out. It seemed there could be no perfect strategy. The variables would take their toll, culling the marginal birds from either side, leaving only the strongest to carry on. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A sad story, from a remarkable, inspiring book. I wonder why I chose this music ....
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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