From Dan Cristol’s monthly column in the Virginia Gazette, 10/2/2022
“Deer are graceful and beautiful animals and native inhabitants of Virginia’s forests. They were hunted nearly to extinction by 1900, but have slowly recovered as a result of habitat management, reduced hunting, and natural reforestation. Their recovery has been so successful that populations in most places are 10 times what they were historically. Their overabundance is the result of warmer winters, a paucity of predators, reduced popularity of hunting by suburbanites, and the alteration of our landscape into a cornucopia of delicious suburban yard preserves.
“As deer have become overabundant, one-third of our birds have disappeared.”
An annual tragedy has played out each autumn across the southeastern United States, with hundreds of eagles suffering agonizing deaths at many large reservoirs. The eagles suffer disorientation and loss of balance in a way that suggests brain damage.
There is nothing more helpless looking than a baby bird on the ground. But should you help it or leave it alone? Nearly all baby birds that you will see on the ground are healthy fledglings that should be left alone.
The Williamsburg Bird Club will hold its annual Spring Bird Count (SBC) on Sunday May 15 – just one week away.
This will be the 45th straight SBC that the bird club has conducted. Similar to the Christmas Bird Count, the SBC collects bird population data within a 15-mile diameter circle centered in Colonial Williamsburg. The circle encompasses many of our birding hot spots on the Peninsula, and also crosses the York River to pick up areas in Gloucester and across the James River to Hog Island. The total count is compiled from data collected by observers in the field and also feeder watchers counting at their homes and neighborhoods.
Please consider participating in this year’s SBC. It only takes one or two hours to collect feeder watcher data and your volunteer hours can be logged under the Spring 2022 Bird Count project. We also need a few people to work in the field around the Waller Mill area, so if you have some extra time available next Sunday please let me know and I’ll add you to that field team. After you compile your tally at the end of the day, simply e-mail your list to me, or enter your data into eBird and send me a link.
Please contact me (jcorliss240@cox.net) to learn more about the SBC and how to participate!
There were 35 birders, 28 species and a nice fire today (even though the air temperature was about 70 degrees!) for birding at New Quarter Park for the first day of 2022. The ebird list is at https://ebird.org/checklist/S99856080
Jonathan Hochul
Jonahtan Hochul, Jan Lockwood, Shirley Devan
Bill Williams, Jim Corliss, Arlene Williams
New WBC President Nancy Barnhart, Shirley Devan, Jonathan Hochul
Kathi Mestayer
Thad Hecht, Kathi Mestayer, Mac Mestayer, Claudia McMurray
Joyce Lowry, Ann Carpenter, Deborah Humphries, Arlene Williams, Paula Perdoni, Vance Solseth, Jeanette Navia, Lisa Nickel, Jan Lockwood
Jonathan Huchul
Photos by Shirley Devan (except for the photo Shirley is in. That photo by Jeanette Navia)
A mysterious illness that was first noted around the nation’s capital and then killed thousands of birds across more than 10 eastern states appears to be waning. The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources still advises residents in affected northern Virginia counties to desist feeding the birds. For those outside of the affected area it advises taking down the feeders only if multiple dead birds are observed in your yard, which was always good advice. Reports to the agency have declined sharply in recent weeks. Reports can be filed at https://dwr.virginia.gov/wildlife/diseases/bird-mortality-reporting-form/
The source of the fatal illness, which causes crusty eyes and neurological problems, has never been identified, but since the beginning there has been an uncanny correspondence with the geography and timing of the Brood X cicada emergence. In some wildlife disease outbreaks multiple stressors are at play, such as a combination of immune-weakening pesticides in the cicadas and a parasite that normally does not overcome birds. Perhaps the eye infection is caused by a bacterium spread by feeders and the neurological symptoms are from a long-banned pesticide that has accumulated in underground cicadas over the past 17 years.
Should you resume feeding the birds yet? As always, that is a personal decision. Some influential pro-bird organizations such as MassAudubon are being cautious, recommending that no one in Massachusetts feed birds, despite lack of any cases in that state yet. Others, such as Virginia’s wildlife agency, have never recommended taking down feeders unless you live near ground zero in a northern county or see disease with your own eyes.
Out of an abundance of caution, I will keep my feeders empty until cooler weather returns in October. This is partly because I am enjoying not having to clean feeders during these moldy months. I am providing two water baths though, and will feed hummingbirds during their southward migration in August and September, when they won’t find many flowers in my neighborhood. Because no disease agent has been identified there is no consensus among the leading scientific institutions as to whether bird feeders are contributing to this epidemic. I recommend following your own common sense in deciding whether to feed your birds this summer. Feeding the birds is as much for you as it is for the birds, so factor in the benefits that you and your feathered friends receive, and the currently low risk that is entailed by feeding birds in this area.
The Board is in agreement that walks can now be open to the community with no need for reservations. New Quarter Park walks will be the fourth Saturday of each month at 8:00 am. You may just show up with no restrictions! Hurray.
Field Trips
Carpooling for field trips may resume as previously done. On the day of the field trip, people will meet at Colony Square Shopping Center (1301 Jamestown Road) and the cars/riders will be configured at that time.
A devoted member of the Williamsburg Bird Club’s extended family was claimed by cancer January 6, 2021. Tom McCary had been a WBC member since 1983 and was granted a Lifetime Membership at the club’s September 20, 2017 Fortieth Anniversary meeting, recognition long and well deserved.
Upon completion of a career in education, Tom assumed vital roles in our organization’s life before health issues compromised his activities. He served as Vice President for Programs for five years, 2003 through 2007, and then was club Historian for 2017 and 2018.
His scholarship and love of birds were blended into essays for The Flyer, among them: “Titmouse 1, Dog 0” (Vol. 32 No. 4-April 2008); “Can’t Find Birds-Pray for Wintry Day” (Vol. 39 No. 2- February 2015); “March 29 Chincoteague or Bust: Chasing Birds from Sun to Sun” (Vol. 39 No. 5-May 2015); and “Another Unusual Bird Sighting” (Vol. 40 No. 9-November 2016). He often regaled us at monthly meetings with eloquent book review recitations. Tom was a regular attendee at the club’s monthly field trips and was an integral member of the club’s annual Spring and Christmas bird counts, covering on foot a large area of the College Woods section, an area of Williamsburg where he grew up and resided before moving to a health care facility near Richmond. Tom occasionally led bird walks at Shirley Plantation, where he was a docent, and was part of the bird-walk leaders team for New Quarter Park.
Tom McCary (Photo by Shirley Devan)
Above all, Tom embodied the character, dignity, and decorum of a quintessential gentleman. To a person this will be the first and foremost memory anyone who knew him will mention. It was not uncommon to find him dining alone at one of our local eateries, dressed in a coat, tie, and hat. When approached, Tom would stand, smile delightedly as he gave a slight, gracious bow, and then immediately would want to know how you were doing. Learning of Tom’s passing, Virginia Boyles posted this to several of us on January 24: “I remember going to the Capitol Pancake House after birding at the park [New Quarter], and the waitresses knew him by name, and what he wanted to drink before he ordered. They all loved him, and some came by to speak to him, though they were not serving that table.”
During the last year Tom, his attorney and WBC Treasurer, Ann Carpenter, worked through the logistics of a generous bequest to WBC to support our Nature Camp Scholarship funding, lasting evidence of his life devoted to education, scholarship, and birds. Tom McCary’s obituary may be found at this link.
Tom McCary, Sara Lewis, Dorothy Whitfield, ?, Adrienne Frank, Gary Driscole, Patty Maloney. January 1, 2010.
Since the beginning of the Williamsburg Bird Club in 1977, the Club has had a relationship with the local public library, the Williamsburg Regional Library. We have donated funds to the library so they could add bird-related books, and, later, cassettes, CD’s, DVDs, and eBooks to their collection. A list of those titles can be found at 40-Plus Years of Donations to the Williamsburg Regional Library. Note that there is now a “carousel” of book covers on that page of bird-related items available at the library. If you click on the titles, you will be taken to the record for that title in the library’s catalog for possible check out. This is another great way the club and the library have partnered.
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