Recently I read accounts of an unusual “die-off” of small birds in New Mexico, Utah and a few other Southwestern states. Estimates of more than a hundred thousand dead small birds.

This occurred at the peak of the southerly migration of warblers, pewees, swallows, etc. Finding small dead birds in the spring and fall migrations is not too unusual, but it usually occurs at large transmitting towers or in the big coastal cities below glassed buildings.

The large numbers of birds that were found dead was very widespread and not related to birds striking objects. Experts are looking at two possibilities. One theory for these unexplained deaths may be related to the massive wildfires burning up and down the West Coast. It could be smoke related, but they and I believe the fires led to something else.

Birds, in order to fly, have adapted with hollow bones, extremely lightweight body coverings (feathers) and no jaws. They, being so efficient, are also unable to store up large amounts of fat like woodchucks, bears or yours truly. Yes, they do store up a bit of fat reserves before the migration, but just enough to sustain them through the long trip. These small birds migrate 200 or more miles each night, and then use the next morning to feed in daylight to fuel up for the next night’s flight. The conjecture is that fires forced them to migrate much farther to the east, probably east of the Rockies taking them over desert and semiarid regions. These areas, unlike Oregon, Washington and much of California, would normally have few insects on which they can feed. To compound that, the southwestern U.S. is in the throes of a big drought offering even less food. Another factor in play here was the unusually early snowfall some of the Rockies received in very early September. This would have made a few days of their trip south also harder to find the critical caterpillars and/or flying insects.

These myriads of dead birds may have simply starved to death by not being able to supplement their vital daily food intake.

Shorebirds, too, are in a precarious situation regarding migration feeding situations. The Delaware Bay and Eastern Coastal areas are critical to supplying food for semipalmated sandpipers, semipalmated plovers, ruddy turnstones, and many other sandpiper species. Their migration northward is almost perfectly timed with the egg laying done by horseshoe crabs.

The crabs each lay hundreds of thousands of eggs on the muddy shores and these birds, after making thousands of miles of migration to reach here, need to refuel on these eggs. The bird numbers dropped rapidly until biologists reduced the killing of the crabs for bait. If the birds get to feed, they can make it to the far reaches of the Arctic and breed successfully.

In the Central U.S., American golden plovers need stopovers on their northerly and southerly migration to feed on insects and crustaceans so they can move to and from the Arctic and southern South America, some 8,000 miles. We have recognized these crucial areas, protected most of the remaining ones, and except for the semipalmated sandpipers, the numbers of these birds are not dropping too rapidly. The long migrations require “refueling spots” for these birds to make it. Such a critical balance …

Test Your Outdoor Knowledge: Which of these aren’t found in this area in winter? A. ravens, B. robins, C. song sparrows, D. chickadees, E. wood thrushes.

Last Week’s Trivia Answer: Great blue herons eat fish of course, but also snakes, frogs and even mice.

Noteworthy: I’ve already seen the first arriving juncos (Oct. 4) and white-throated sparrows. Look for these and the other winter birds arriving in your yards soon.

Contact Barry Reed at breed71@gmail.com.