Species Shifts in the Mahonia

The Mahonia season at Cary BirdCam is pretty much over for 2009. My inspection of the bushes this morning revealed practically no remaining fruit. We're cleaned out nearly two weeks earlier than last year, if memory serves. One reason for this may be the larger number of species recorded scoring Mahonia fruit. In 2008 I photographed the "thrush cousins" (Mockingbirds and Catbirds) and they were well in evidence this year. In fact thanks to BirdCam I realized that there must be a territorial boundary someplace as Catbirds predominated on the west side and Mockingbirds seemed to be all on the east side. But there were others as well. According to BirdCam evidence I also had Northern Cardinals and Brown Thrashers which were not in evidence in '08. In contrast, the Robins who were all over the Mahonia last summer were not seen at all this time. The picture evidence is not conclusive. I can only orient the camera in so many places and this was a short season in any case, so things may have gone on that were otherwise invisible to me. But it is clear that these overlooked shrubs would be an interesting study. Perhaps I'll get a better opportunity in 2010.