Amid all the destruction and havoc along the Atlantic Coast during Hurricane Sandy, quiet carnage was taking place in South Jersey's marshes.
Few noticed. Fewer still, in all likelihood, cared.
But in birding circles, the ramifications have been huge.
As the storm surge rose, the waters flooded the underground burrows of two signature marsh species - tiny furry things, the meadow vole and rice rat.
Naturalists later found an astonishing number of their little corpses in the high-water "wrack line" of marsh grasses and other detritus left by the storm.
And now, birders throughout South Jersey are seeing the upshot: a scarcity of northern harriers, red-tailed hawks, and other raptors that depend on a quantity of rats and voles for winter food.
"This is the worst year for birds of prey on the bay shore that I've seen in 36 years," said Pete Dunne, director of New Jersey Audubon's Cape May Bird Observatory. "The impact is dramatic."
http://www.philly.com/philly/health...s_pantry_bare_for_N_J__s_coastal_raptors.html
Few noticed. Fewer still, in all likelihood, cared.
But in birding circles, the ramifications have been huge.
As the storm surge rose, the waters flooded the underground burrows of two signature marsh species - tiny furry things, the meadow vole and rice rat.
Naturalists later found an astonishing number of their little corpses in the high-water "wrack line" of marsh grasses and other detritus left by the storm.
And now, birders throughout South Jersey are seeing the upshot: a scarcity of northern harriers, red-tailed hawks, and other raptors that depend on a quantity of rats and voles for winter food.
"This is the worst year for birds of prey on the bay shore that I've seen in 36 years," said Pete Dunne, director of New Jersey Audubon's Cape May Bird Observatory. "The impact is dramatic."
http://www.philly.com/philly/health...s_pantry_bare_for_N_J__s_coastal_raptors.html
