Is Maine wildlife preparing for Hurricane Sandy?

On Sunday, Oct. 28, Mainers were purchasing batteries, candles and nonperishable food. And on Monday, deck furniture and Halloween decorations were hauled indoors before Hurricane Sandy crept up the east coast and blew it all into Canada.

Thanks to news reports and satellite imagery, we can prepare for a storm long before it slams into our communities, but what about Maine’s diverse wildlife population? Do the animals know what’s coming?

“It’s a really good question, and it’s also really hard to answer,” said Shawn Haskell, wildlife scientist for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. “Most of what we know is anecdotal, based on an observation here and there. There’s really not a lot of scientific studies about wildlife reactions to individual storm events.”

BDN photo by Aislinn Sarnacki

While Haskell was cleaning up his yard in Kenduskeag on Sunday, he was entertained by three red squirrels fighting for nuts just a few feet from where he was working. Meanwhile, chickadees were constantly visiting his bird feeder, and he wondered if they might be taking the opportunity to store up energy before hunkering down for the storm.

“Most people would probably be of the opinion that wildlife can sense storms coming and have evolved a response, behaviors to maximize energy intake now, seek cover and weather it out,” he said.

For example, it’s a common belief among hunters that white-tailed deer will seek shelter and lie down during windy weather. Popular hunting magazines often suggest that this behavior is a direct response of deer being capable of detecting drastic changes in barometric pressure, which decreases before a hurricane hits. In fact, many trail cameras record barometric pressure on each photo so that hunters might be able to detect patterns between barometric pressure and animal activity.

“I think most animals have low pressure sensors or at least are detecting something,” said William Glanz, associate professor of zoology at the University of Maine in Orono. “Maybe it’s just the cloudiness or the wind picking up — things like that — but they basically just withdraw to shelter.”

Photo courtesy of Shelly Brown
Three deer feed under a Bucksport apple tree recently.

If changes in air pressure doesn’t affect the deer, the predicted 60-mph gusts from the hurricane might, Haskell said. One primary way that deer evade predators is by detecting movement in the forest. When high speed wind causes trees to sway and leaves to scatter, they become increasingly nervous and often decide to lie down.

Expert birder and BDN columnist Bob Duchesne hadn’t noticed any big changes in bird behavior as of Monday afternoon, but birders are watching the progress of the storm for another reason.

“A lot of information is being swapped about what will happen if birds from down south get pushed up here,” Duchesne said.

Sea birds, in particular, may be pushed north by high winds.

“Whenever a major storm happens in migration season, its like, anything could happen,” Duchesne said. “Depending on what the storm does, they could go anywhere. We [birders] are telling each other to be on alert.”

So what species are they looking for? The list is long.

“Some of the long distance migrant landbirds, things like cave swallows, which are from Florida and Texas — things that don’t usually live anywhere near Maine  — they’ve been blown [to Maine] in storms like this,” Duchesne said. “The northern lapwing, rare geese from Europe, has also been blown [to Maine] in storms like this.”

After the storm, most of the migrating birds that have been blown off course won’t have a problem getting back on track, Duchesne said. They’ll get reoriented and head south again.

BDN photo by Gabor Degre
A blue jay visits a Maine bird feeder as the snow falls.

“Most of migrants have already left Maine, and the ones that are here are used to occasionally dealing with big storms,” he said.

Land birds such as blue jays, partridge, chickadees and turkeys will likely seek shelter in conifers and dense vegetation, while some seabirds may fly farther from shore to ride out the storm on the water to avoid being bashed on the sharp rocks of Maine’s coast, said Glanz.

“There have been some observations of seagulls flying higher into the atmosphere, picking up wind and flying away, in front of a storm,” Haskell said.

Whether animals can detect the impending hurricane, they can be affected by the severity of the wind and rainfall.

“There’s little documentation of direct mortality, but it certainly exists,” Haskell said. “Hurricane can have more of a longterm impact on wildlife, particularly anything that nests, roosts or forages in a damage-susceptible habitat.”

One example of a damage-susceptible habitat is an old tree, which is fragile and takes time to replace. Maine animals that often dwell in these trees include owls, woodpeckers, opossums and porcupines.

AP Photo by Pat Wellenbach
In this June 2006 file photo, a piping plover runs across the beach in Phippsburg, Maine.

“I was just speaking with our shorebird specialist about the endangered piping plover, which nests on our coastal beaches, another habitat susceptible to damage,” Haskell said. “The storm surge could destroy a beach on one site and build it up on another.”

Southern Maine beaches are home to about 40 pairs of piping plovers, Haskell said, and biologists have been working hard to preserve their eroding habitat.

“It’s an amazing effort that seems to be making some positive effects,” Haskell said. “But you never know, one storm like this could just end it all.”

Several birding websites are available for people to report sightings of bird species driven to Maine by the storm, including www.mainebirding.net, www.mainebirdingtrail.com and www.mainebirding.com

 

 

Aislinn Sarnacki

About Aislinn Sarnacki

Aislinn is a Bangor Daily News reporter for the Outdoors pages, focusing on outdoor recreation and Maine wildlife. Visit her main blog at actoutwithaislinn.bangordailynews.com.