Data Confirm Chickadee Shortage

It's been depressing not to see as many Carolina Chickadees around as usual. And the data from my logbook confirm that I am not imagining the deficit. As shown in the chart to the right, my BirdCam photo counts of Chickadees have consistently been low throughout 2010. In fact in every month the counts were lower than their equivalents in 2008 and 2009 (i.e. the June 2010 count is the lowest June count overall, the February 2010 is lower than the earlier Februarys, etc.) I did see things pick up in June but the appearances declined, suggesting that there was little ultimate nest success this summer for that species. I don't know for certain what did the damage, but a Cooper's Hawk has been around much of the year. We shall hope for an improvement and better numbers in 2011.