birddog 68
Well-Known Member
Pa grouse population decline is from West Nile virus and the population will keep declining until they are gone.all kidding aside, there have been a lot of cases and concerns about birds disappearing or dying in the USA and NO one know's why
I know my state back last yr came out and asked folks to STOP feeding them,
as they felt gathering birds about feeders would kill more birds, due to it possibly be something that spreads from one bird to another, and having lots of them intermix at feeders was thought to be a big concern and cause of birds dying!
I know I slowed down and then stopped feeding birds here for a few weeks
but I was finding birds DEAD after I stopped feeding them, not before!
due to,
I think they became to use my place as a major food source, and relied on it to get by!(also why I have a LOT of birds here)
and once I stopped, they were starving to death literally! not able to find enough food other wise, or many of them didn;t!
so, I went back to feeding, as always,
and since then, I have only found 1 dead bird, a morning dove, and NOT sure what or why it died, but that was the only one over the past 12+ months now!
But I do see a big drop is populations of a lot of species, grouse, the state game bird in PA< is about GONE< just like the pheasant, there not surviving or thriving at all on there own,
woodcock, again, there MIA in this state as to some yrs back,
bat's about gone here, Dragon fly's about gone
things that seem to be thriving though are more on the pest side of things, TICKS< Mosquito's , NO shortage of them any more
and just a decade or two ago, a TICK was never something we ever seen here, yet now, there every where!
and for those that don;t think its a big deal
well, hate to bust anyone's bubble, but the mosquito has killed more humans than another critter on this planet!
Loose so many BAT's due to White nose illness, IMO< has been a huge reason why skeeters are in such high numbers here now!
I think a lot of state game dept's and wildlife agencies need to get off there asses and start getting way more active in saving the species we have, and figuring out what is causing things to disappear!
after all its there JOB to do so!
just don;t try telling them that, they will argue its not!
been there done that In PA< with Pheasants, where they blamed everyone BUT themselves for them going extinct in the wilds of PA! too much pride to be able to admit they made a mistake(same can be said about how they let the forest get destroyed by over browsing from deer) now, grouse, wood cock, are almost gone, and still they don;t take any credit for things going bye bye!
funny how that works, when your JOB is about protecting wild life and wild life goes missing, yet NOT there job according to them!
It's disheartening since I love grouse hunting.