Cross-wired Instincts at the Mercy of Global Warming
Hmmm, is global warming messing with long established survival instincts?
Opinions are mixed about the unusually mild winter we’ve been having here in Ontario. Those of us who view winter as a season to be endured rather than enjoyed are quite happy to wake each morning to the mild temperatures. Aficionados of winter sports, on the other hand, are increasingly impatient for colder days and a good base of snow.
Our avian friends are equally confused and conflicted. It is normal for a few birds, which should be elsewhere, to be sighted here each winter. There are rebels in nature as in humans. But this winter has birders all atwitter with the number of unusual sightings.
A number of normally migrant songbirds have taken up winter residence here. A flycatcher in the lookalike Empidonax family had birders blood pumping when it was first thought to be a stray Hammonds. Eventually, majority consensus settled on a Yellow-Bellied – not quite so exotic, but still one that should be long gone by now.
But it is the number of truly rare sightings already recorded that really tells the tale.
Bullocks Orioles summer in the western half of the U.S. with rare sightings in the east. The farthest north they are normally found in winter is the coast of California. So how did one find its’ way to the village of Pakenham near Ottawa?
Even non-birders can surmise that a Mountain Bluebird, another western species, should by rights not be in Ontario at any time. (Not many real mountains to be found in these parts.) But one of these Bluebirds has also turned up in the Ottawa area.
Oh my, it’s a Smew! No, spell check did not mangle the word. Smews are small ducks native to Europe and Asia. On rare occasions, one somehow turns up in North America, inviting debates over whether it is a stray a long way from home or an escapee from an aviary. A lone Smew is hanging out on the St Lawrence River this winter.
Perhaps the most startling find to date is the tiny Vermillion Flycatcher which was an early Christmas present to birders in Wallaceburg in southwestern Ontario. Ordinarily, you would have to go the Gulf Coast of the U.S., and have luck on your side, to catch a look at this striking little song bird.
These vagrant birds are ships lost at sea in the storm of global warming. Their inborn instincts on where they ought to be have come unglued. As much as birders delight in unusual winter finds, the sad fact is that many of these strays will die when sub-zero temperatures finally arrive.
Sunshine and blue skies in December may warm our hearts. But they are very much a mixed blessing in the delicate balance of nature.
~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog .
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