Vibe Spring2025 - Flipbook - Page 48
BIRDING MWV By Mik Oyler
Birds to Watch in the Valley
As a birder, the most common question
these days is, sadly, “Where did all the birds
in my yard and at my feeders go?”
Answer: It’s depressing, but there’s hope.
P
eople have plenty of questions for
you when they learn that you’re a
birder. “How did you get into birds?”
Answer: When my uncle showed me a
brilliant Scarlet Tanager and told me how
it had flown thousands of miles from
South America in the spring to nest in
our eastern forests, only to fly all the way
back in the fall.
Or, “I heard a sound like a distant
Harley Davidson and then saw this large
brown bird puffing itself up and flapping
its wings. What the heck was it?” Answer:
A Ruffed Grouse, drumming!
And, of course, “What’s your favorite
bird?” Answer: The Northern Shrike,
also known as the “butcher bird,” for its
practice of impaling prey on thorns or
barbed wire.
However, the most common question
these days is, sadly, “Where did all the
birds in my yard and at my feeders go?”
Answer: It’s depressing, but there’s hope.
Where did they go?
A recent first-ever comprehensive study
of net bird population changes in the U.S.
and Canada showed staggering declines.
The North American bird population
is down by 2.9 billion breeding adults.
Forests alone have lost one billion birds.
Grassland bird populations lost another
720 million birds. And the common birds
have suffered the most, with over 90
percent of the losses coming from just 12
families, including the sparrows, blackbirds, warblers, and finches that many
people see in their yards and at their
feeders.
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What is causing the decline?
It’s a constant struggle for survival for
birds, who must be wary of natural predators and various human-created threats:
habitat loss, climate change, pesticides
and contaminants, invasive species,
collisions (windows), and even outdoor
domestic cats.
Citizen/Community Science
The Audubon Christmas
Bird Count is the longest-running community science bird
project in the U.S. and
fuels Audubon’s
work throughout the year.
Local
Audubon
chapters
or conservation
organizations—like
Tin Mountain
Conservation Center in Albany, NH—
organize, gather, and
share valuable
local data to
the national
database that
has been
populated
for over
100
years.
Northern Hawk-Owl, spotted in Fryeburg in 2015.
Derek and Jeannette Lovitch, Freeport Wild Bird Supply
MWVvibe.com / @mwvvibe
