Day 9: January 9th - The Silent Winter

Sunny, light winds, 44 degrees

     “Those who dwell, as scientists or laymen, among the beauties and mysteries of the earth, are never alone or weary of life.”

― Rachel Carson

One of only two Red-tails seen today

     In 1962, Rachael Carson first published her epic work entitled The Silent Spring.   Her book warned of a time to come when if things did not change, there would be no bird song to wake us in the morning or lull us to sleep at night.  Our use of pesticides was so rampant and indiscriminate that our avian neighbors were slowly being eradicated before our very eyes.  Well, thank God, those conditions were greatly remediated, much to the credit of Carson’s warnings, and we slowed the rapid decline of birds in our world.  

      Well, things are not so dire as they were in the 60’s and the reasons for our “Silent Winter” while not being well defined are more than likely the result of a fluky weather pattern that has developed across the Northeast this winter.  Many birders and others who spend a good deal of time in the forest have noticed an eerie silence this season when walking though the woods.  Our recent Christmas Count came up with the identical number of species as last year but the total numbers of individuals was half of what it was in 2010!  Today, members of the Harriman State Park “League of Naturalists” were out in the field to observe and count the number of birds and other wildlife species which were found in the park on this day.  Again, the numbers were way down. 

Tree sparrow

      True, there were pockets of good numbers of birds like this Tree Sparrow, and the White-tailed deer seen here were in good numbers (our group counted 43 today), but there was an almost frightening quietude as we hiked the trails of Harriman in most areas.  

      Unusually warm temperatures?  Results of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Irene and the freak October snowstorm in the second half of last year?  One can only guess.  But it certainly will be interesting to see what is headed our way for the rest of 2012.

Check out the video of the many White-tailed deer seen during today's wildlife count.