WHERE THE BIRDS ARE; APPROPRIATE FOOD, COLD WEATHER MAY ATTRACT MORE BIRDS TO FEEDERS

If the backyard feeder has not been a popular dining spot for birds this winter, blame the mild weather and the plenitude of natural food.

"If you had the choice of tofu every day or a salad bar, which would you take?" asks Dr. Bill Eddleman, a biology professor at Southeast Missouri State University.

Abundant natural food sources have been reported throughout the region this winter, says Eddleman, who helped conduct the Audubon Society's Christmas Bird Count in Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois.

But the recent onset of colder temperatures has brought more birds back to the feeders. "Birds can sense that it's going to be a rough night," Eddleman says, watching the goldfinches on the feeder outside his window. "It's cold so they are stoking up."

The heretofore mild winter has affected many birds' migratory habits. "If birds don't have to move they won't," Eddleman said. "It takes a lot of energy to move."

The bird count was conducted at Mingo National Wildlife Refuge, Big Oak tree State Park south of East Prairie, Horseshoe Lake Conservation Area in Southern Illinois and the Union County preserve in Southern Illinois, which includes Trail of Tears State Park.

Robins, whose arrival is the traditional first sign of spring, are still abundant here. During this year's bird count at Illinois' Horseshoe Lake, 4,500 were spotted.

Eddleman said the count in Taney County was 1.2 million robins.

Birders in south Texas are complaining that they have no robins this year.

A Cape May warbler was spotted during the recent bird count at the Union County Refuge in Southern Illinois. This is the first time one has ever been seen here during the Christmas count, which dates to the 1960s.

"They should be in Florida or South America," Eddleman says.

In the spring, the warbler usually is seen only passing through because it nests in the spruce forests of the Great Lakes states during the summer.

A Cape May warbler also was spotted in St. Louis during the bird count. The bird has a yellow rump and is heavily streaked underneath. The nape of the neck also is yellow.

The numbers for waterfowl are up in general. Eddleman says the prairie breeding habitats have been excellent three years in a row. And again, food has been plentiful locally so they haven't had to move south.

He said the number of Canada geese is low because of a combination of changing land uses along the migratory path and snow storms in their Arctic breeding grounds.

The goose hunting clubs have been suffering.

Snow geese are plentiful but they're difficult for hunters to lure in, Eddleman says.

Snow geese now are so abundant that they are destroying their breeding habitat. There's talk about using currently illegal hunting means and expanding the season, Eddleman said.

In the 1940s and 1950s, the Christmas Bird Count helped reveal a decline in the numbers of raptors. Subsequently, the culprit was determined to be the pesticide DDT. DDT was causing the birds to lay eggs with unformed or thin shells, Eddleman said.

Currently, biologists are worried about the species called shrikes. "Worldwide, all species of shrikes are declining," he said. "We don't know what's going on. They're just disappearing."

The meadowlark is another bird people may not be seeing as many of as usual. That's because the meadowlark's habitat is grasslands, and our grasslands are disappearing as we are changing from an agricultural to a suburban system, Eddleman says.

"Our fields are being chopped up into small pieces."

But since the DDT debacle, eagles have come back strong. Fifty-four bald eagles were counted at the Mingo National Wildlife Refuge this year.

But you don't have to go that far to see a bald eagle. Cape Rock is one of their favorite spots, Eddleman says.

Eddleman will teach a beginning bird-watching class March 23 at the Cape Girardeau Public Library.