Monday, April 16, 2007

Silent Spring

Have you noticed that this spring the "dawn chorus" of birdsong is underwhelming?

May update: more reports.

The sun is shining, the robins and Steller's jays are nesting, the insects are making a racket, but it seems the songbirds are out to lunch.

perhaps this is why the insects are making a racket.

(and honeybees seem to be sparse this year too, in my yard at least, which had me wondering if Colony Collapse Disorder had hit Nevada County. But the neighborhood beekeeper says no, hers are fine, and county honeybee expert Randy Oliver reports that to his knowledge C.C.D. is not here.)

for a final fauna report, your correspondent's first black widow spider sighting of 2007: a mere infant, still gray, with very, very long front legs.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

i hear the birds chirping with vigor as i get up at sunrise (5:30 - 6) and the honey bees are all over the place in our yard.

-JeffP

Anna Haynes said...

yes, there's chirping, and the robins are singing. Perhaps it's that the other usual singing suspects (warblers and orioles) aren't here yet - I've emailed Walt Carnahan of SFAS to ask, am hoping he'll be able to shed light on it.

re the honeybees - it's intriguing to hear that they are still patronizing the more elegant establishments in town...
(more speculation: the your-yard-vs.-mine difference in bee (and other?) observations could be due to microclimate; I'm down in Glacier Gulch and you're not, so your flowering plants are likely to be further along.)

and, in the bird dept, an aside: I just recently learned (was told) that the "hey baby" bird (who solicits in a lackluster, half-hearted way) is a golden-crowned sparrow.

Anna Haynes said...

Heard back from Walt, who says that warblers are in the Grass Valley area ("[a week ago] I was hearing black-throated grays, orange-crowned, townsend's and an occassional wilson's")- and I did hear one warbler later this morning. So who knows...
(and bee shortage likely stems from my wisteria's having gotten clobbered (99% bloom 'mortality') by one of the frosts a couple weeks back.)

And on a different topic, kudos to Dave Moller for his investigative reporting on Kathleen Smith's moonlighting, and to you Jeff P for your column and your paper's editorial on the situation. Keep up the good work!