[Tweeters] Lower bird counts at Union Bay this past winter?

[Hans-Joachim Feddern via Tweeters]

There seems to be a general decline in bird numbers except maybe for gulls
and crows. Even my non birder wife has commented on it lately. Numbers of
birds on our feeders appear to be lower than in previous years - except for
juncos. Interestingly enough, introduced species such as House Sparrow and
European Starling numbers are way down and I have yet to see an Eurasian
Collared-Dove in the Seattle/Tacoma area this year. Not all of this
decrease can be explained with global warming or habitat loss.

Good Birding!

Hans

*Hans Feddern*
Twin Lakes/Federal Way, WA
thefedderns at gmail.com


On Sat, Feb 21, 2026 at 4:42 PM Constance Sidles via Tweeters <
tweeters at u.washington.edu> wrote:


> Hey tweets, I've noticed the same thing that Julia mentiones in her tweet,

> namely, numbers of birds seem  in general to be down at Montlake Fill. This

> includes land birds as well as waterfowl. I have no explanation. - Connie,

> Seattle

>

> > On Feb 21, 2026, at 2:26 PM, Julia H via Tweeters <

> tweeters at u.washington.edu> wrote:

> >

> > This is pure anecdata, but I feel like Union Bay Natural Area has been

> less "birdy" overall this past winter.  Numbers have been down both in

> terms of species count + raw number of birds the past two months I've led

> my bird walk, compared to Januaries/Februaries of the prior years, and the

> usual giant-raft-of-coots-and-wigeons that habitually forms in Lake

> Washington has been much smaller as well.

> >

> > Has anyone else noticed this / does anyone have any theories for why

> this might be?

> >

> > Good birding,

> >

> > Julia Hasbrough

> > _______________________________________________

> > Tweeters mailing list

> > Tweeters at u.washington.edu

> > http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters

>

> _______________________________________________

> Tweeters mailing list

> Tweeters at u.washington.edu

> http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters

>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20260221/94ecbef0/attachment.html>