Thought the following tidbits might be of help/interest.

 

Boreal chickadees will join mixed-species flocks in winter.  These chickadees store food in the fall and retrieve it later in winter, which may allow them to be resident at high altitudes and latitudes. This species has a reputation among birdwatchers as an elusive bird, as its range is remote and it is not as likely to call as often as other chickadees. Boreal chickadees also forage more within the thick foliage than the other North American chickadees, and this makes them difficult to see.

---Seattle Audubon

http://www.seattleaudubon.org/birdweb/bird_details.aspx?id=331

 

During winter boreal chickadees usually form flocks of 4-8 birds but, will sometimes remain as a pair or an individual. These flocks sometimes combine with black-capped chickadees, red-breasted nuthatches, and golden-crowned kinglets during winter months.

---Adam S. Hadley

http://www.borealbirds.org/birdguide/bd0644_species.shtml

HABITAT CAPACITY AND JUVENILE DISPERSION

Black-capped chickadees are generally associated with mixed boreal forests, whereas boreal chickadees are associated with coniferous forests. In certain years, fall movements of the two species of chickadees occur in opposite directions: boreal chickadees move towards the southwest, while black-capped chickadees move towards the northeast.  Ninety-five percent of the birds from these two species banded in Tadoussac, [Quebec] are first-year birds. Could this dispersion represent an index of productivity, or is it a question of habitat carrying capacity? Could different conditions in their respective habitats explain their asynchronous cycles?

It is interesting to note that for the ten-year study period, boreal chickadees and gray jays, two strongly residential boreal species, irrupted only once and in the same year.

 

FRUIT AND SEED PRODUCTION PULSES

Cedar waxwings, purple finches, pine siskins and white-winged crossbills show peak movements every two years, possibly reflecting fruit and seed production. Since 2002, these cycles are more diffuse. This is likely due to two consecutive years of low fruit and cone production. An important increase in numbers of fruit- and seed-dependant species is expected in 2006, due to increases in food availability. Interestingly, the fall abundance pattern of pine grosbeaks resembles that of the above species, with peaks observed in different years (1997, 1999, 2001 and 2003).

 

Horned lark, American pipit and common redpoll numbers fluctuate synchronously and are likely related, either directly or indirectly, to seed availability.

 

 

PREDATOR-PREY CYCLE

Peaks in numbers of yellow-rumped warblers and rusty blackbirds are typically recorded in years following large movements of boreal owls due to low vole abundance. Is this four-year cycle being observed linked to the abundance of small predators and voles in the boreal forest? Following a significant decrease in vole numbers, small mammalian predator numbers are reduced. These recover as the abundance of voles increases. The combination of low numbers of predators with increasing vole numbers may reduce predation pressure on birds, creating the pulse observed in the numbers of yellow-rumped warblers and rusty blackbirds.  The four-year fall abundance cycle observed for the rusty blackbird likely contributes to increasing its long-term vulnerability.

 

Numbers of rough-legged hawks likely reflect lemming abundance (a four-year cycle).

 

Bruno Drolet, Jean-Pierre L. Savard, Andrew P. Coughlan and Mélanie Cousineau

http://www.explos-nature.qc.ca/oot/Documents/NAOC_posterDrolet.pdf

[Then I found this.  Oops!  How about letting SCIENCE dictate our actions?!]

"Birds are showing us how the heavy hand of humanity is tipping the balance of nature and causing ecological disruption in ways we are just beginning to predict and comprehend," said report co-author and Audubon Director of Bird Conservation, Greg Butcher, Ph.D. "Common sense dictates that we act now to curb the causes and impacts of global warming to the extent we can, and shape our policies to better cope with the disruptions we cannot avoid."

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/usa-birds727.html#cr

 

Peace,

Gregory Bennett

Akron OH

Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all.

1 Chronicles 29:11

"Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,' calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country.  I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.

"Listen to me, you stubborn of heart, you who are far from righteousness:  I bring near my righteousness; it is not far off, and my salvation will not delay; I will put salvation in Zion, for Israel my glory."

Isaiah 46:8-13

 


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