First, it was the mysterious disappearance of billions of honeybees around the globe in the past several years. But, like the Arctic icepack, they seem to have made a comeback.
Now, it seems that it’s the 20 most common birds that are in a sharp decline worldwide, especially here in the U.S. My wife Sharon is constantly asking, "Where are the birds?" Her bird feeders are often untouched except, perhaps, for extremely athletic squirrels that dive from the trees onto the swinging feeders in the backyard.
Sharon has likewise seen less hummingbirds this season. But, as Elaine Cerny said in her September 15 Press article, "other hummers have summered far to the north of us. These hummingbirds will be coming through on their journey south for a short stay at your ‘Bed and Breakfast’ feeders." So, leave those feeders out there a bit longer despite the fact that we haven’t seen a hummingbird on Player Drive in at least two weeks.
According to the National Audubon Society’s unprecedented analysis on more than 48 years of bird population studies, there has been "an alarming decline for many of our most common and beloved birds."
Since early 1967, the average populations of the top 20 common birds have fallen by an incredible 68 percent. Some species, like finches, bluebirds and chickadees, have nose-dived in numbers by as much as 80 percent. All of the rest of the common bird populations have seen at least half of their numbers literally "vanish off the face of the earth in the past five decades."
Populations of meadowlarks, for example, as well as other grassland birds, have fallen off sharply due to suburban sprawl, industrial expansion and the intensive usage of farming chemicals, including deadly pesticides.
These same harsh chemicals are likewise widely used in our artificially greened-up yards. The insect populations have therefore dropped significantly cutting down on a primary natural food source for birds.
Also, it has been estimated that bird-catching cats have more than doubled in numbers across the country since the mid 1960s.
It is my climatological opinion that WIDE WEATHER EXTREMES are proving fatal for many species of birds. They find it almost impossible to cope with intense heat and cold, record droughts and 500-year flooding like we’ve recently seen in Colorado and New Mexico as well as parts of Arizona and Nevada, places that have also had to cope with horrible wildfires in the past decade that have destroyed bird habitats.
We need to become "bird friendly," as Sharon says. Going ‘GREEN’ is not enough!
