I’m fortunate to have many birds visiting my garden, 20 species so far this month and 8 or so while I’ve been typing this. Some days the garden is very busy, on other days it is much quieter. The quietest days seem to coincide with the day before a forecast high wind. Is there a reason for this or am I imagining things?
Would like to see what others say.
We have noticed barges travelling upstream on the Thames that have masses of crows on board. Wondering if they ever fly back.
Human brains are capable of seeing patterns where none exist. (Athletes and sportsmen often have superstitions based on this property.)
No obvious reason springs to mind why future weather conditions should affect the number/variety of birds visiting your garden. The answer is to keep records to see if the pattern holds up. (The counts will also depend on time of day, and on the duration of observation, so you’d want to control for these to avoid introducing a bias by observing longer when a high wind is forecast.)
I too can see no obvious reason for it. I spend a lot of time in my garden room looking out at the feeders and the wider garden area - generally at least 3 meals a day (so fairly regular times) and time to do a Times crossword. I reckon I’ve got a pretty good feel for the normal range of bird activity. Over several, perhaps 8-10, years both my late wife and I regularly observed the pattern of a sharp decline in activity on the day before a high wind.
It could be coincidence and I don’t think it happens before every storm. There are certainly other low-activity days which are not associated with gales. But I have a strong feeling that there is a pattern here so I’m really asking “Has anyone else observed this?” and “What could be the explanation?”
Then there are the Ravens
There is no doubt that birds’ behaviour is strongly influenced by the weather. I would be prepared to believe that there might be some phenomemum that the birds detect which is a precursor to high winds - perhaps a change in wind direction or pressure? But it would be quite difficult to prove.