Is it climate change? New birds are here, others disappeared

A report from the National Audubon Society suggests climate change is affecting North American birds.

By Zachariah Bryan

Monday, January 28, 2019 5:58am

MUKILTEO — On a brisk Tuesday morning earlier this month, Rick Taylor stood sentry on the sidewalk at Mukilteo Lighthouse Park. Armed with binoculars, he panned over Puget Sound, searching for birds. It didn’t matter what kind, he said, just “ones with feathers.”

Taylor is a member of the Pilchuck Audubon Society and his hobby has taken him to tropical locales across the globe. Snohomish County, though, is where he gets most of his bird watching done. He’s been to all of the local haunts countless times — so many times that his wife has grown bored, opting to stay home more often than not. But Taylor said the repetition is worth it.

He compares it to “Pokemon Go.”

“You never know what’s going to turn up,” he said.

With climate change, that statement may ring more true than ever. Birds that have shied away from the Pacific Northwest’s gloomier seasons are now making once unthinkable journeys from far-flung places. However, other birds are leaving, preferring habitats farther north.

“For anyone listening to the birds, paying attention to the birds, climate change is pretty here and now,” Taylor said.

The annual Christmas Bird Count, organized by the National Audubon Society, offers a window into what these changes look like. Dating back 120 years, the national volunteer-run count is one of the oldest citizen science projects in the country.

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CONSERVATION: Groups Join Forces To Focus On Bird Habitats

THE Bahamas National Trust and the National Audubon Society are joining forces to focus on improving bird habitats.

#The trust recently hosted a reception, at which both groups signed a memorandum of understanding to foramlise the collaboration.

#The goal is to improved the conservation of bird habitats and key species within the national park system and across The Bahamas.

#Audubon is a non-profit organisation dedicated to environmental conservation with a special focus on birds.

#“Audubon has been dedicated to conservation effort in the Bahamas for more than a century,” said David Yarnold, president and CEO of Audubon.

#“Audubon has helped to establish the Wild Bird Protection Act, protected the dwindling flamingo population in the 1950s - which saved flamingos from near extinction, provided scientific guidance for the establishment of the first ever land and sea park in the Exumas and provided the science for white-crowned pigeons that established hunting bag limits.”

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Christmas Bird Count at Sea

Back in my landlubber days Christmas Bird Counts (CBCs) were always a highlight of the winter holiday season. We would suit up for the weather and spend the day counting birds within our ‘count circle’. At the end of the day we would meet up with the other birders and tally our observations. The Christmas Bird Count is managed by the National Audubon Society in the United States and this year will be the 112th count. This citizen science program provides avian scientists with data to look for trends in abundance and distribution of individual bird species.

Now, for the second year, cruisers and other mariners can be part of a similar large-scale citizen science effort. This Christmas bird count, not affiliated with Audubon, is called a SeaBC. Last year’s inaugural count spanned one hundred degrees of latitude from Maine to Antarctica. The second SeaBC is scheduled for November-January and this year we’re encouraging mariners to simply take digital photos of birds seen at sea. It’s fine if you’re not a seabird expert! Seabirds can be difficult to identify—even for experts. Take digital photos and jot down notes, saving the identification for later with the help of the online community at the Birding Aboard Facebook page.

There are several good bird identification guides for the Caribbean. Birds of the West Indies (Princeton Field Guides) , by Herbert Raffaele, James Wiley, Orlando Garrido, Allan Keith and Janis Raffaele (2003) is a good resource for land or sea travels in the Caribbean.

Additional resources, including instructions and tally sheets, are posted on www.facebook.com/Birding.Aboard, under the button for SeaBC resources. All data goes to the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology’s eBird database, which has easy online reporting and is available in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese (www.ebird.org). The data becomes a resource for scientists and citizens worldwide and is shared with other conservation organizations such as BirdLife International and National Audubon Society.

Continued:  http://www.allatsea.net/caribbean/christmas-bird-count/