Razors Edge ★ Posted September 20, 2019 Share #1 Posted September 20, 2019 ...in this story! They aren't accounting for the increase in the CHICKEN population! B-O-O-M! Crisis averted Three billion North American birds have vanished since 1970, surveys show By Elizabeth Pennisi North America's birds are disappearing from the skies at a rate that's shocking even to ornithologists. Since the 1970s, the continent has lost 3 billion birds, nearly 30% of the total, and even common birds such as sparrows and blackbirds are in decline, U.S. and Canadian researchers report this week online in Science. "It's staggering," says first author Ken Rosenberg, a conservation scientist at the Cornell University Laboratory of Ornithology. The findings raise fears that some familiar species could go the way of the passenger pigeon, a species once so abundant that its extinction in the early 1900s seemed unthinkable. The results, from the most comprehensive inventory ever done of North American birds, point to ecosystems in disarray because of habitat loss and other factors that have yet to be pinned down, researchers say. Yet ecologist Paul Ehrlich at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, who has been warning about shrinking plant and animal populations for decades, sees some hope in this new jolt of bad news: "It might stir needed action in light of the public interest in our feathered friends." In past decades, Ehrlich and others have documented the decline of particular bird groups, including migratory songbirds. But 5 years ago, Rosenberg; Peter Marra, a conservation biologist now at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.; and their colleagues decided to take a broader look at what is happening in North America's skies. They first turned to the North American Breeding Bird Survey, an annual spring census carried out by volunteers across Canada and the United States, which has amassed decades of data about 420 bird species. The team also drew on the Audubon Christmas Bird Count for data on about 55 species found in boreal forests and the Arctic tundra, and on the International Shorebird Survey for trends in shorebirds such as sandpipers and plovers. Aerial surveys of water bodies, swamps, and marshes filled out the picture for waterfowl. All together, they studied 529 bird species, about three-quarters of all species in North America, accounting for more than 90% of the entire bird population. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisL Posted September 20, 2019 Share #2 Posted September 20, 2019 I have noticed a huge decrease in seagulls in my area. Earlier this year I was telling my wife, this place used to be crawling with them, where are they? You still see them around but not in the numbers as before. Don't get me wrong, I hate them but they are a part of coastal living... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
late Posted September 20, 2019 Share #3 Posted September 20, 2019 Gramps used to talk about migrating birds making the day seem like nite, a century ago. You were saying?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Razors Edge ★ Posted September 20, 2019 Author Share #4 Posted September 20, 2019 4 minutes ago, ChrisL said: I have noticed a huge decrease in seagulls in my area. Earlier this year I was telling my wife, this place used to be crawling with them, where are they? You still see them around but not in the numbers as before. Don't get me wrong, I hate them but they are a part of coastal living... When we visited Mono Lake, they mentioned how some SoCal sea birds go there to lay eggs. They also mentioned how those numbers have dropped over the years - possibly due to the drop in lake level and the large increase in salinity. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Razors Edge ★ Posted September 20, 2019 Author Share #5 Posted September 20, 2019 2 minutes ago, late said: Gramps used to talk about migrating birds making the day seem like nite, a century ago. You were saying?? I remember as a kid watching the Canada Geese flying their giant V formations high in the sky as they went south and later when they returned north. That was in PA, so maybe it wasn't/isn't a thing in VA, but I do miss those awesome displays of flying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prophet Zacharia Posted September 20, 2019 Share #6 Posted September 20, 2019 9 minutes ago, Razors Edge said: I remember as a kid watching the Canada Geese flying their giant V formations high in the sky as they went south and later when they returned north. That was in PA, so maybe it wasn't/isn't a thing in VA, but I do miss those awesome displays of flying. Go to the Chesapeake. They have little huts right on the water for your migrating bird watching needs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Razors Edge ★ Posted September 20, 2019 Author Share #7 Posted September 20, 2019 3 minutes ago, Prophet Zacharia said: Go to the Chesapeake. They have little huts right on the water for your migrating bird watching needs. Michener's Chesapeake is a great read and highlights the wonder of the Canada Goose. If you haven't read it, you should give it a try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MickinMD ★ Posted September 20, 2019 Share #8 Posted September 20, 2019 Paul Ehrlich is still around? I studied from his textbook in a Biology and Human Affairs course around 1970. In addition to birds, the frog and other amphibian population has been declining since at least the 1970's, may be 50% and is declining at 3.7% per year now. Some scientists say they've found a particular fungus that accounts for most of it, but one documentary showed a researcher counting the percentage of frogs with extra legs, multiple heads, and other deformities and claimed a dramatic increase. The deformities would suggest a chemical rather than biological reason. Today, researchers have found traces of synthetic hormones at the tops of peaks in the Rocky Mountains, so there's certainly a problem there. The concentration of sperm in human males is about 30% of what it was in the 1800's, so maybe nature is slowly finding a solution to the problem of ecosystem destruction! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisL Posted September 20, 2019 Share #9 Posted September 20, 2019 26 minutes ago, Razors Edge said: I remember as a kid watching the Canada Geese flying their giant V formations high in the sky as they went south and later when they returned north. That was in PA, so maybe it wasn't/isn't a thing in VA, but I do miss those awesome displays of flying. I remember them in the mid 80’s in NoVA. Yeah it was cool. I think your missing Canadian Geese's are in SoCal. There are thousands of them now that have made SoCal their permanent home. My kids HS fields have huge flocks of them each morning. I was walking Jack last night near their school and couldn’t count all of the Canadian geese’s if I tried. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
late Posted September 20, 2019 Share #10 Posted September 20, 2019 36 minutes ago, MickinMD said: The concentration of sperm in human males is about 30% of what it was in the 1800's, so maybe nature is slowly finding a solution to the problem of ecosystem destruction! Perhaps they should call it Round Down instead of Round Up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
12string Posted September 20, 2019 Share #11 Posted September 20, 2019 Geese, Turkey, and Turkey vulture populations are way up here. Maybe they're eating the little birds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
late Posted September 20, 2019 Share #12 Posted September 20, 2019 21 minutes ago, 12string said: Geese, Turkey, and Turkey vulture populations are way up here. Maybe they're eating the little birds They are carrion eaters. Can you say DOA? Do geese like spanakopita? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kzoo Posted September 20, 2019 Share #13 Posted September 20, 2019 DOA - Department of Aviation. Planes are killing them. Huh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kzoo Posted September 20, 2019 Share #14 Posted September 20, 2019 I heard it was the new fancy large windmills... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
late Posted September 20, 2019 Share #15 Posted September 20, 2019 1 minute ago, Kzoo said: Huh? It was a pun, hun. Both their diet, and his idea, were dead on arrival. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
late Posted September 20, 2019 Share #16 Posted September 20, 2019 1 minute ago, Kzoo said: I heard it was the new fancy large windmills... Which is tricky since they were doing it a century before they were built. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kzoo Posted September 20, 2019 Share #17 Posted September 20, 2019 1 minute ago, late said: It was a pun, hun. Both their diet, and his idea, were dead on arrival. Hey chicka, don't call me hun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kzoo Posted September 20, 2019 Share #18 Posted September 20, 2019 Just now, late said: Which is tricky since they were doing it a century before they were built. They're still 'doing it'. That's how baby birds are born. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
late Posted September 20, 2019 Share #19 Posted September 20, 2019 3 hours ago, Kzoo said: Hey chicka, don't call me hun. If the pun fits, wear it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
late Posted September 20, 2019 Share #20 Posted September 20, 2019 3 hours ago, Kzoo said: They're still 'doing it'. That's how baby birds are born. Wrong birds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirtyhip Posted September 20, 2019 Share #21 Posted September 20, 2019 Tons of birds here. Has anyone here read "Silent Spring." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kzoo Posted September 21, 2019 Share #22 Posted September 21, 2019 2 hours ago, Dirtyhip said: Tons of birds here. Has anyone here read "Silent Spring." I saw the documentary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirtyhip Posted September 21, 2019 Share #23 Posted September 21, 2019 8 minutes ago, Kzoo said: I saw the documentary. I always forget punctuation. ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kzoo Posted September 21, 2019 Share #24 Posted September 21, 2019 Just now, Dirtyhip said: I always forget punctuation. ? I forget the question mark often. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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