Advancing Leaf-Out and Flowering Phenology is Not Matched by Migratory Bird Arrivals Recorded in Hunting Guide's Journal in Aroostook County, Maine

Abstract

Historical records have the potential to temporally and spatially expand ecological studies to places and periods that garnered the attention of earlier naturalists. Few historical or contemporary scientific studies have examined the local-to-regional ecological effects of climate change in northern Maine. Recently uncovered journals of L.S. Quackenbush, a hunting guide in mid-20th century Aroostook County, ME, provide an opportunity to incorporate new historical ecological data into climate change research.The leaf-out and flowering phenology observations in the Quackenbush journals are closely tied to spring temperatures and match the direction, though not the magnitude, of changes found in southern New England. Comparisons of Quackenbush's bird records to contemporary observations are less straightforward, but help fill an important gap in regional migratory bird phenology studies. Quackenbush's routine observations, recorded daily in a rural outpost in northern Maine, provide an important contribution to climate change research in a data-poor region and highlight a type of record that may be available in other rural areas.