May 7, 2008 5:56 pm US/Central
Where Have All The Birds Gone?
(WCCO)
Minnesota's rough winter and mild
spring is making it tough on some of our feathered friends.
The DNR says many Swallows
and Blue Birds are dying off because they're having a hard time finding food.
"They got back to Minnesota and just plain
ran out of gas and died because there was no food," said Carrol Henderson, the non-game
wildlife program supervisor for the DNR.
According to the DNR, birds
in the north metro and upstate Minnesota
have been the least fortunate.
"There were birds just
dropping over dead," said Henderson. "Other people further north were checking their nest boxes for blue birds, and tree swallows and
finding the birds dead inside the boxes," said Henderson.
The late snow and mild
spring has made it hard on birds that eat insects and worms.
"What it did is it prevented the
emergence of some of the early insects that they would be using for food, so they
essentially ended up starving to death," said Henderson.
This has been known to
happen every five to 10 years. Experts said it's just a cruel act of
Mother Nature.
"The largest number that one
person found in his nest box was 19 and that was just one local area,"
said Henderson. "So, this
could have easily affected thousands of Swallows and some Blue Birds across
the central and northern portions of Minnesota."
There's nothing bird lovers
can do but just sit back and let Mother Nature do her thing.
"We need these nice warm
days, pushing 60 and 70 degrees and that brings the insects out and that provides
the birds the food that they need," said Henderson.
DNR said the swallow
population should recover quickly because they have a very active reproduction
cycle.
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