Bird count shows effect from climate change

The Audubon Christmas Bird Count is a tool for monitoring bird populations, in which volunteers record observations at various times in December around the country. Some of you here have done your part -- some of us had to bail out at the last minute this year.

The data show significant changes in the distribution of birds, with the northern frontier for some species moving north as things warm up. The Anchorage Daily News has an article today on the subject:

"Global warming brings more feathered friends north in winter"

The Audubon report is at Birds and Climate Report.

We're doing our best up here in Maine to push our confused feathered friends back south where they belong...

"On the morning of January 16, as New England was under the grip of an arctic blast, an all-time low temperature of -50° Fahrenheit was recorded for Maine. It was recorded at 7:30 a.m. EST at a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) stream gauge on the Big Black River near Depot Mountain in northwestern Aroostook County. The previous record, -48° Fahrenheit, was set in Van Buren, Maine almost 84 years earlier, on January 19, 1925."

http://www.erh.noaa.gov/car/News_Items/2009-02-10_item001.htm

sardog1 said:

The data show significant changes in the distribution of birds, with the northern frontier for some species moving north as things warm up.

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sardog1
"The sight of a feather in a peacock's tail, whenever I gaze at it, makes me sick!"
-- Chas. Darwin, letter to Asa Gray, April 3, 1860


During the Q&A following Janet Browne's excellent "Darwin at 200" slide lecture at Harvard yesterday, she answered the inevitable question about why fewer than half the people polled believe in evolutionary theory, to which she replied that those numbers only apply to North America, not the rest of the world, where the vast majority believe in Darwinian evolution. Same thing with global warming theory (bring on the red squares!).

Here is a video link for Suzi Quatro's "Hey, Charly, the Song for the Darwin Bicentenary," perhaps something for the Bluffs to consider at Unfrozencaveman's gathering in Vermont next month?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1Vh7jCUKSo&feature=channel_page

My backyard is evidence

Have had a red-bellied woodpecker and carolina wren this winter, first time ever.

adkayaker said:

Have had a red-bellied woodpecker and carolina wren this winter, first time ever.

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I canonly guess...you are in the Adk? Red Bellies have been seen near Monroe NH recently.

Thanks for posting this Sardog. I know things are warming but I hope our Crawford Notch Circle remains a winter wonderland for this event well into the future.

The robins around me have been feasting on berries which are abundant. I would imagine the reason they are here is because of the food.

My feeders in Montreal have attracted very few (none, actually Redpolls or Purple Fiches). We used to have tons of them. Maybe they are staying further north? First season yet that I have noticed Pine Siskins at the feeders.

We also have a pair of cardinals and my 30 year old bird book shows their range as being a ways south of the border.

Dr. Dasypodidae said:

sardog1

Here is a video link for Suzi Quatro's "Hey, Charly, the Song for the Darwin Bicentenary," perhaps something for the Bluffs to consider at Unfrozencaveman's gathering in Vermont next month?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1Vh7jCUKSo&feature=channel_page

Click to expand...

O M G!!!!

Rockin' out right now by another window. Thanks so much!