Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2000 12:13:59 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: rick Subject: Re: Loggerhead Shrike (invisible morph) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Greg Miller wrote: >While I'm at it, I remember hearing Ring-necked >Pheasants years ago (early 90s) along Mountville? Rd >(sorta diagonal from "T" intersection with Oland Rd >and New Design Rd). Were these released birds? > >There also used to be Ring-necked Pheasants (as late >as 1994) just north of Monacacy Battlefield Monument >in the field on the west side of Rt 355 (just south of >the Norwest office complex). I've only been back once >since then (1999), but did not hear them. Released >birds, too? > RNPHs are of course non-native and became widely established in this region through a combination of official and unofficial (game farm) releases. For the past 10-15 years they have been declining significantly and are now rather scarce in many areas of the Piedmont where they were formerly very common. Twenty years ago I used to hear 20-30 on a spring or summer morning in Baltimore, Carroll, or Frederick counties but such numbers would be exceptional now. BBS data show an average annual decline for the period 1980-1989 of 15.5 percent, which is a crash. Cause of the decline is somewhat speculative. The reason generally given as most important is the all-inclusive "habitat loss," which can cover a number of scenarios. During the Maryland Atlas we collected some anecdotal evidence related to declines. Some biologists argue, persuasively, that the biggest problem has been the establishment of winter wheat as an agricultural staple. Females seem to love putting nests in the stuff and are sitting on eggs when the crop is harvested. It is reported that many do not abandon the nest and fall under the blades of the mowers. That story, not written up but told over the phone, is courtesy of a couple of biologists in Maryland and one in Pennsylvania who said they saw that behavior while riding the mowers. Supporting that version is a bit of an oddity. The decline was first noticed by hunters and state biologists following up on hunters' comments, not by the BBS. BBS censuses calling males for the most part and the males were not being killed off, surviving after their mates were gone for at least three to four years. The declines become evident in the BBS data when males start disappearing, or rather, not being replaced as they die off. This is a subject which does not attract as much attention as the declines in some other birds (N. Bobwhite, i.e.) because RNPH is non-native and the state is no longer in the busines of trying to establish the birds. I have seen, in my somewhat haphazard searches of the literature, precious little about RNPHs in the East, although there is a lot of literature on them in the Midwest and Great Plains. I don't know to what extent private game farms are still mucking about with the birds, but as an irrelevant listing sidebar you better not wait ten yer to get RNPH on your various county lists. Unless there is a dramatic and decidedly unexpected reversal of fortune they are going to be hard to get in many areas pretty soon. SHAMELESS NAKED PLUG: A lot of this info is in the Maryland/DC Breeding Bird Atlas, a book every MD birder should have and which is still available at many Barnes and Noble stores and perhaps others. I'm not plugging B&N, just happened to notice they have it. All proceeds go to MOS of course. Rick Insect repellent is one of a number of joke items available in any chemist shop. - - Henry Beard Rick Blom rblom@blazie.com 4318 Cowan Place Belcamp, Maryland 21017 (410)575-6086 Editor: BWD Skimmer (www.birdwatchersdigest.com) ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================