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I perceive there are nonetheless folks on the market who deny human-induced local weather change. Maybe these folks have by no means needed to personally expertise more and more erratic local weather patterns. I, nevertheless, am nonetheless a California boy, despite not residing in that state for 4 many years now, and I nonetheless hold monitor of the climate there. There appears to be two sorts of California climate these years: these with half the traditional rain and historic wildfires, and people with 50% extra rain than regular, and historic flooding. Final winter was a historic flooding winter.
And now, in my long-term residence of Michoacán, Mexico, we have now skilled a one-year drought in contrast to something I’ve seen in my 30 years right here. I’ve usually seen the western half of our giant Lake Cuitzeo dry up in early or late spring, simply earlier than our summer time wet season. Three years in the past, the whole lake primarily dried up from January by way of Might. However this 12 months, 2023, one thing most extraordinary occurred: The lake principally dried up at what must be its wettest time. Right here is a photograph of me, standing one kilometer from its “shore”, on the very finish of August. (We should always have had extra rain in September, however that month was nearly utterly dry.)
Now, this has some main significance for migratory waterfowl and shorebirds. The previous ought to quantity a minimum of 100 thousand people every winter, whereas the latter must be current within the tens of 1000’s. So when there isn’t any Lake Cuitzeo on which to winter, the place do all these birds go?
Our 2020 drought taught me that any physique of water, irrespective of how small, may host these “drought refugees” in dry years. Final week’s drop-in on a small pond close to our church definitely strengthened this speculation, after we found a most-unexpected vagrant Hooded Merganser on a most-unexpected pond.
Nonetheless, I used to be nervous once I pushed a set of highly-qualified associates (4 ornithologists and a botany professor) to accompany me to the small San José de las Torres reservoir, simply above the town of Morelia. In spite of everything, on a standard 12 months this physique of water solely presents an excellent variety of American Coots, a handful of hybrid, semi-domestic geese, a couple of Pied-billed Grebes, Cattle, Snowy and Nice Egrets, a Nice Blue Heron or two, and maybe a couple of Noticed Sandpipers and Killdeer. For Michoacán within the winter, this doesn’t precisely characterize a thriving and diversified wetland. However one other native biologist had reported a hyper-endemic Black-polled Yellowthroat there, and I needed to seek out out whether or not it was nonetheless there, so push I did.
It didn’t take lengthy to calm my nerves. As quickly as we had parked beside the lake, we noticed all kinds of migratory geese: Canvasbacks, Gadwalls, Blue-winged Teals, American Wigeons, and even a pair of Redheads. Mexican Geese had been additionally current; these are residents within the space, however not usually on this physique of water. Not dangerous, for a reservoir that usually doesn’t host any wild geese.
Gadwalls flew overhead
The Canvasbacks stayed on the water.
The shorebirds had been a bit much less shocking, with at first solely a Better Yellowlegs, a Inexperienced Heron, and one White-faced Ibis becoming a member of the same old suspects. However then… Oh look! Two Ospreys flew overhead, turning up time and again to fish on this small physique of water. I can usually go for as a lot as three years with out seeing an Osprey in Michoacán, and have by no means seen any by Lake Cuitzeo. However right here they had been, above only some hectares/acres of water. They usually had been clearly fishing, with some success.
There have been loads of different birds within the space, with 72 species across the reservoir for the day. A Merlin joined our extra widespread American Kestrel and Cooper’s Hawk. A Belted Kingfisher joined the ranks of the drought refugees. And the Black-polled Yellowthroat? None of us noticed it early that morning. However after a while spent birding in close by pine-oak forests, bringing our complete for the day to 94 species, a couple of different nice species did present up, on our journey again to our vehicles.
First, the Yellowthroat turned up. In truth, we noticed a minimum of two. It is a large deal, as this species is historically solely seen in three locations: on the shores of Lakes Pátzcuaro and Cuitzeo in Michoacán, and the Lerma Marsh in Mexico State. I discovered myself questioning if this historic drought may drive the species to maneuver into some new habitats, really lowering its inhabitants’s susceptible state.
If you understand your Frequent Yellowthroats (which we additionally noticed), there isn’t any doubt that this all-black cap belong to a Black-polled Yellowthroat.
After which I noticed an uncommon heron. The Least Bittern is rarely a simple discover. And that this one ought to select to spend a minimum of 20 minutes removed from the reeds that often cover it was a brand new expertise for all of us.
It was odd to see a high-quality species like a Least Bittern subsequent to a wholly home duck.
We had seen Sapsucker holes on the tree below which we had parked, and certainly, a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker was our ultimate cherry on the day’s sundae.
I’ll finish with an replace on our vagrant Hooded Merganser — and her associates. She was nonetheless on that pond the Thursday following our preliminary Sunday sighting, in addition to the next Sunday. Two days later, she was not seen there. However now there have additionally been one or two Canvasbacks on the pond, and this Tuesday a Wilson’s Snipe additionally turned up, most unusually in a shoreline that’s made up of subtropical thorn forest, slightly than that hen’s standard marshland. Additionally, each eBird and Wikipedia state that Canvasbacks “winter on any giant physique of water”. Our Canvasbacks appeared confused in regards to the definition of the phrase “giant”.
.
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Most definitely not a “giant physique of water”.
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