Thousands of nesting birds mysteriously vanish...

...from Seahorse Key in Florida.  They don't know why.  Anyone have ideas as to what's up?

"[font=Georgia, serif]Mike O'Dell runs tours out of the little marina in nearby Cedar Key. He said on a Tuesday in May he led a group out to view thousands of birds crowding the shores of the key. On Wednesday, there was nothing."[/font]

http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2015/0 ... _in_f.html

Well, being a resident of Florida (Tampa). One thing that strikes me is that our weather has been very wet this year. Typically, we don't see rain until about the time Hurricane Season starts in June. We started getting rain (too much rain!) long before June. Maybe birds pick up on the weather changes?

From what it sounds like in the articles that I've read, the abandonment was sudden and catastrophic. That would make me think the cause might have been related to high levels of predation or disturbance. One other possibility that I would think of is a massive food shortage that could have been related to the weather or some other factor. Did the unusually wet weather also have extended periods of fog? Could this area of the Gulf have lasting impacts from the BP oil spill?
Paul

That how migrating birds do it, here today, gone tomorrow.

I have not heard or read of such an abandonment of rookeries. This is something to think about. Wish I was there to get a better feeling for what is going on.

These are resident birds. Under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, virtually all (if not all) of our native birds are designated migratory and so are protected. I could be mistaken on this but I would say that all of these wading birds nesting in the Florida rookeries….are residents……living right in that area their entire lives.

Rainy Season:
Historically, the rainy season in Florida starts in April and goes till about late December. This is the norm, although sometimes it happens in reverse. I saw one year when it was high water all winter.

My experience has been that wading bird breeding plumage appears just about at Christmas time.

The nesting season is synchronized with the dry season. In this way, as the dry season continues, fish become trapped in shallow, wide, marsh depressions, varying in depth…... assuring a continual supply of energy for the parents and chicks.

Robert King
http://www.itsaboutnature.smugmug.com

Maybes:
- source of food goes away, like mass quantities of sardines
- predator like a peregrine falcon shows up and everybody else splits
- since the birds in this article all left after JULY 4 (I think) then maybe a huge fireworks display spooked them
- dogs off leash. this has killed many of the good spots in San Diego, particularly the San Diego river mouth at Ocean Beach

According to another article I read they are focused at the moment on the possibility human disturbance.

I had to read it again….abandonment…..not mass mortality. Hunan disturbance is suspect.