We're having the same weather conditions Rick has. This is really getting boring. Friday we had a nice sunny day. First picture. Saturday we got up looking at the second picture. Sunday it was all gone & sunny again like Friday. This morning we got up looking at the third picture. It's either rain or snow any more seems like. Turkey season opens this coming Saturday. Guess it'll be a snowshoe turkey season.   ......Paul H

Well here in the UK it is :cens:  down for the week, nice day Saturday and a dead squizzer but weather is pants.

Quotenice day Saturday and a dead squizzer but weather is pants.

Was any of that "English"?:grin:

Cold weather is very hard on ground-nesting birds in the Spring. Ground-nesting birds' chicks are "precocial". (As opposed to tree-nesting chicks being "altricial".) Precocial chicks "jump right up" after they are hatched (hence being called "precocial"), and start following their mother around. (They have to, or predators will find them and eat them.) Altricial birds, on the other hand, are always "featherless" when they hatch, and remain in the nest, IN THE TREE, for weeks to months.

Altricial chicks are more like reptiles in that they are basically "cold-blooded" than precocial chicks are. Altricial chicks handle varying air temperatures by 'allowing' their body temperature to lower - significantly - without harm. As "cold-blooded" animals do. (Technical terms for cold-blooded and warm-blooded are, respectively, "poikilotherms", and "homeotherms".)

Precocial chicks however, 1) can NOT tolerate "low" temperatures, and 2) do not have the ability to "thermoregulate" (generate heat) for as much as two weeks after hatching. They rely completely on their mothers to provide the  extra heat they need if the ambient temperatures get cold. Add "wet" to the ambient conditions, and hens simply can not provide sufficient heat for large clutches. SOME will die. If it's "bad", all will die. This is the primary limiting factor on annual populations of most Galliformes (chicken-like birds), all of whom are ground-nesters.

My undergraduate senior thesis (and the first paper I ever published , was titled "Ontogeny of Thermogenesis in Coturnix coturnix japonica". C.C. japonica is more commonly known as "button quail". They are very small, (4oz-sh), but most importantly, they go from a freshly laid egg, to a reproductive adult in about 6 weeks. Great for research of all kinds.) I hatched a bunch of them and exposed them to "cold" while monitoring their oxygen consumption with a manometer. Yup, I killed a bunch of baby quail in the name of science. Much of my academic career was spent 'abusing' animals in the name of science. That experience is what shaped a great deal of why I created Biopar. //www.biopar.com

Paul

Saturday was a nice day with the bonus of a dead squirrel...

Very interesting observation Paul. I never gave such things much thought. Science was not my forte anyway. I never had much interest in scientific names either. If I used a scientific name for something around the people I associate with, they don't have a clue what I'm talking about anyway. I also came to the deduction that if someone needs to know the scientific name for something they can look it up in the dictionary just as easy as I can. .......It's looking like all birds are gonna have trouble raising broods this spring. I think the blue birds, tree swallows, English  sparrows & starlings are sitting on eggs now. Finding flying insects to feed young is definitely a problem right now. For the past week the female resident red tail hawk hasn't been around very often. I'm thinking she's sitting on the nest right now too. ........Paul H

Food availability isn't as big a problem as ambient temperature is, unless the problem persists for weeks.

I use scientific names for one reason only - there is only ONE correct scientific name. (Or at least that USED to be true before science became the newest popular religion, and the moronic genetic priests took over taxonomy.) For example: The above bird I mentioned Coturnix coturnix japonica is (now) found all over the world. As such, it is called different common names everywhere it is found.  Button quail, Japanese quail, Common quail, Madagascar quail, and so on. There are about 20 common names for the same bird. Given that THL is read by people all over the world, including the scientific name as well as the local common name allows everyone reading the post to know exactly what animal or plant I am talking about.

All those birds you mentioned that are likely sitting on eggs, are altricial birds. As such, they'll be "fine" with the unseasonably cold and wet. Plus, as long as they haven't hatched, they will be 'fine' with the parents brooding them.

It was my intent to become a bird physiologist, focusing on avian reproductive energetics. How I got sidetracked to study fish is a funny story. (It involves what I call "the pact made in hell".) Before I got diverted to 'cold and slimy' from 'warm and fuzzy', I did quite a bit of research on avian reproductive energetics. (The energy costs of reproduction.)

Paul

Paul, In see your point & it is well taken. However at my age & very limited education, scientific names are for the most part useless. The people I have to associate with haven't a clue about scientific names. If  I asked most anyone I know if they ever killed a ursus horribilis they would most likely think I had lost my mind. If I asked if they ever killed a grizzly bear they would know what I am talking about. .........Most ground nesting birds have large clutches of eggs while tree nesting birds have fewer. My common sense tells me that's because ground nesting birds have a much higher mortality rate. I highly suspect birds of prey have fewer eggs & young because of the difficulty of providing food for the young. Most all ground nesting birds have to hit the ground running as soon as they hatch & this makes it more difficult for them to survive. Can't find your own food, you're out while tree nesting bird young are fed by their parents usually long after they fledge & have a better chance of survival. .......Paul H