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Reply To: | Henry W. Burton |
Date: | Thu, 29 Mar 2012 18:21:15 -0400 |
Content-Type: | text/plain |
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Hello fellow birders,
There has been much talk on the mild winter and spring weather
that most of the country has experienced and the question, will that cause
an earlier migration. Two migration factors that are not directly
influenced by mild weather are sunlight and winds. There is one factor
that influences migration that is positively influenced by mild winter and
spring weather and that is food. It is my experience that insects are much
more abundant when there is a mild winter and spring. If this is true it
may "speed" the migration ( to what degree I would not know )due to two
factors. If there are more insects available during migration birds will
have to spend less time to injest calories ( build fat ) and thus will be
able to migrate earlier from each stopover site. Second factor is with the
warmer weather birds will have to expend less calories for heat and thus
will have this "saved" energy to use for flight thus be able to migrate
from stopover sites earlier. This is contingent on insect availability
during the migration period. An entemologist would have information on how
early warmer weather affects specific inscects emergent/hatch dates. If
the mild weather produces insects that are not normally available during
migration or larger numbers of insects that are normally available during
migration it will be interesting to see if this "speeds" up migration and
by how much. I am interested to hear feedback an my belief that nature is
a basic energy equation !!!!
May the birds be with you, Henry.
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