Bird and Insects Cope With Climate Change (1)
Hi, Frank. You look refreshed and on top of the world this Monday morning. Did you spend your weekend as usual, enjoying nature and looking for interesting avian life?
Indeed I did. Birdwatching ahs been a hobby of mine ever since the days of lockdown. You know, spending time in nature is good for the mind and body. It decreases stress, sharpens concentration and improve mental health. If it weren’t for birding, I’d be pretty sedentary.
I know birdwatching can be quite addictive. But I hear the bird population is falling rapidly in the U.S. Some species are at risk of becoming endangered.
Yes, I’m worried about that. These days I see fewer and fewer common birds, like sparrows, magpies, blackbirds and finches.
That concerns me too. In North America, we’ve seen a staggering loss of birds. Wetland conservation efforts have led to more waterfowl like ducks and geese. But grassland birds and shorebirds that depend on forests and arid lands have suffered big losses. There are now said to be three billion fewer breeding birds in North America than in 1970. To put that into perspective, we’ve lost roughly one in four birds over the course of my parents’ lifetime.
Birds are a key indicator of an ecosystem’s health. If the bird population falls, something is wrong with the environment. That should worry everybody.
The situation sounds pretty dire. Why is the bird population shrinking?
Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing.
