North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Stephen Sadler" <Docshiva@Docshiva.org>]

Just for fun, I'll suggest an unusual theory.  It is known that birds use
lines of magnetic force to navigate their migration.  It is known that the
magnetic poles shifted during the large Indonesian earthquake.  This year's
robins might be the first generation to not have a memory of visual cues
(which birds also use) and may depend more strongly on those reset magnetic
lines, so flocks would show up different places than they have in the past. 

There is probably nothing to this.  I just sorta like the idea.

We certainly notice changes in the Pacific flyway that seem to be due not to
magnetism, but a shifting landscape of available habitats and feeding areas.


Stephen Sadler
USDA 9, AHS heat zone 8, 
Sacramento CA - Mediterranean climate

-----Original Message-----
From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of tanis grif
Sent: Friday, June 23, 2006 4:58 PM
To: North American Fruit Explorers
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Amelamchier & robins

That 'Regent' planting was NOT harvested by robins this year.  The owner
says these
are normally harvested by robins before the berries are anywhere near ripe.
My
friend says there is nothing different that she can think of this year which
would
cause them to avoid her bushes.  Yet at my house (30 miles away, in woods
rather
than town), the robins are stripping slightly ripe berries off of Amel
shrubs they
never bothered before.  Has anyone else noticed such on-off feeding?  Can
you
correlate it to anything?