[Marxism] From: Philadelphia Inquirer, Jun. 15, 2007: THE DISAPPEARING BIRDS

[Mike Friedman]

From: Philadelphia Inquirer, Jun. 15, 2007
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THE DISAPPEARING BIRDS

Audubon report says even common species are having trouble

By Sandy Bauers, Inquirer Staff Writer

Get National Audubon Society's full report

When he was a boy in the '60s, Schuylkill Haven nature writer Scott
Weidensaul considered the eastern meadowlark a sound track of summer.
Ask any New Jersey farmers, and they will wistfully recall the
whistles of the bobwhite.

Yesterday, the National Audubon Society quantified what birders and
other outdoors people have known for years: Many of America's most
common bird populations have plummeted over the last 40 years, the
bobwhite, the biggest loser, by 82 percent.

The message, Weidensaul said, is that "no species is safe" from
sweeping landscape changes such as development, loss of wetlands, and
pollution from industry.

"If even the commonest, most widespread birds are having trouble
thriving, it's a pretty clear warning that we need to take action,"
Weidensaul said during a teleconference with reporters.

The study's author, Greg Butcher, the Audubon Society's national
bird conservation director, was quick to point out that while none of
the birds was in danger of becoming extinct, the declines indicated
serious problems that should -- and can -- be addressed.

Butcher drew up a top-20 list that includes the northern pintail,
several sparrows, the whip-poor-will, the eastern meadowlark, and the
ruffed grouse, Pennsylvania's state bird, all of which he said had
declined more than 50 percent.

"These are not rare or exotic birds we're talking about," said Carol
Browner, the Audubon Society's chair and the head of the Environmental
Protection Agency in the Clinton administration. "These are birds that
visit our feeders and congregate at nearby lakes and seashores, and
yet they are disappearing day by day."

Nate Rice, ornithology collection manager at Philadelphia's Academy of
Natural Sciences, said he was not surprised at the analysis, based on
four decades of citizen counts, a bulwark of bird science.

"I can totally believe it," Rice said. "If this isn't the biggest red
flag one can raise, I don't know what is."

For years, ornithologists have been particularly concerned about
migrants such as warblers that wing up from the tropics every year.
"It just goes to show you it's no longer one group," Rice said. "It's
becoming systemic for all birds."

For the study, the Audubon Society came up with a list of several
hundred "common" birds, defining them as those with populations
numbering at least 500,000 in North America, with ranges of a million
square miles or more. The statistical analysis looked at decades worth
of two national counts -- the Audubon Christmas bird counts and the
U.S. Geological Survey's Breeding Bird Survey.

Butcher said that while the report had not been peer-reviewed, the
techniques used "have been extensively peer-reviewed."

The main reason for the decline, he said, is habitat loss -- reduction
in grasslands because of intensive farming, a loss of forests due to
suburban sprawl, and loss of wetlands because of industrialization.

Echoing other studies, however, he said climate change exacerbated
habitat loss.

Species that must shift their range north because of rising
temperatures might be unable to find habitat bridges or pathways to
get there, said Eric Stiles, vice president for conservation and
stewardship at New Jersey Audubon, which is independent of the
national group.

"Because we've sliced and diced the landscape," he said, "they're
stuck on these islands. It's kind of a Berlin Wall for ecology."

In Pennsylvania, where the ruffed-grouse population has declined 22
percent, "a big part of the problem is that they're sharing the forest
with a lot of very hungry white-tailed deer," Weidensaul said.

"The understory that the birds need for cover from predators and the
insects they depend on just aren't there anymore," he said.

Likewise for the wood thrush, said Tim Schaeffer, executive director
of the National Audubon Society's Pennsylvania chapter. Almost 10
percent of the world's wood thrushes nest here, he said.

"These are are common birds for which Pennsylvania has a worldwide
responsibility for maintaining their habitat."

In New Jersey, bobwhites used to proliferate as far north as Hunterdon
County but now remain in only a few spots in Cape May and Ocean
Counties. "They're extremely uncommon," said New Jersey Audubon's
director of conservation, Troy Ettel.

Common terns, whose numbers are down 70 percent nationally, have been
booted from their nesting habitat on barrier-island beaches by houses
or eaten by cats and other predators that come with the people who
live there.

A lot is happening in both states to help the birds.

The Pennsylvania Audubon chapter, for instance, is working with groups
like the Willistown Conservation Trust in Chester County to delay
mowing their fields until after July 15, when grass-nesters such as
the eastern meadowlark have fledged their young.

The Friends of the Wissahickon is promoting an Audubon backyard
program emphasizing native plants that will benefit native birds.

New Jersey wildlife officials have been mapping the remaining bobwhite
habitat to devise a conservation plan.

Birding organizations have long relied on common citizens for both
science and action. Audubon is urging people to to replant their yards
with native species, support reforms to farming and logging practices,
and fight global warming through their lifestyles and support of
legislation.

The new report, Weidensaul said, "is an early warning. We have the
time to turn things around. We have the tools to turn things around.
What we really need is the will and the determination to do it."

Listen to vocalizations of the top 20 declining bird species via ht
tp://go.philly.com/earth

Contact staff writer Sandy Bauers at 215-854-5147 or
sbauers at phillynews.com.