IOWs you don't really know and this whole thing is made up speculative whinging.
“...likely have died ...
IOWs you don’t really know and this whole thing is made up speculative whinging.”
Well, you can make a pretty good calculated guess on the part of the ornithologists, as Lake Michigan is indeed mostly frozen over, and if I were a bird and couldn’t find a lot of open water, and couldn’t easily fly off from ice, I’d probably be pretty hard up too, and hungry. This isn’t a joke for the birds, I’m sure.
Use logic here. Why might they be dying. Too much ice on the lake might be the most logical guess, now wouldn’t it. Even a layman should be able to figure that out. I live in Chicagoland and know the lake pretty well. It’s been almost all ice. This past winter has been a tough one on everyone, including the birds. If I have to see one more mound of ice, I’ll go stir crazy, more than I already am now. I WANT SPRING!
Robins, Cardinals and other birds returned EARLY this year, in mid-February. We had about 20 inches of snow cover on the ground where I live, 30 miles SW of Chicago. There was no food for the birds. Not sure where they went, but they're no longer in my area.
We even have coyotes and now wolves coming into our area looking for food because the snowcover has kept their food (rabbits, mice, etc..) underground/under snow.