Sorry I have not been blogging lately, I have a new job that keeps me quite busy and I have been doing some traveling as well.
However, in case you have not heard and most likely since you are reading my blog, you are already aware of this report on the decline of common bird species in America put out by Audubon
Read it online by clicking on the link above.
In addition, it made the cover of the July/August issue of Audubon magazine. The report lists 20 common species that have declined in population on the average of 70% since 1967.
Causes range from loss of habitat (grasslands, wetlands), Global Warming, loss of Boreal Forests, invasive non-native grass species, and of course pollution.
The list includes:
Northern Bobwhite (down 82%)
Evening Grosbeak (down 78%)
Northern Pintail (down 77%)
Greater Scaup (down 75%)
Boreal Chickadee (down 73%)
Eastern Meadowlark (down 72%)
Common Tern (down 71%)
Loggerhead Shrike (down 71%)
Field Sparrow (down 68%)
Grasshopper Sparrow (down 65%)
Snow Bunting (down 64%)
Black-throated Sparrow (down 63%)
Lark Sparrow (down 63%)
Common Grackle (down 61%)
American Bittern (down 59%)
Rufous Hummingbird (down 58%)
Whip-poor-will (down 57%)
Horned Lark (down 56%)
Little Blue Heron (down 54%)
Ruffed Grouse (down 54%)
Quite a list and rather disturbing. It was only through the efforts of thousands of volunteer bird counters that this trends were made known.
Want to do something to help? Visit the Audubon link to the article and see what there is you can do.
Regards and good birding,
Glenn Nevill
