Let me say that I love Margaret Renkl. She has a rare ability to put words to paper, and, as well, her love for the environment which she often writes about makes her columns a real pleasure to read. But - and yes there is a “but” here- her position on immigration, also held by many Times readers, has catastrophic implications for the environment she loves so much. I remember a few weeks ago, when she agonized so much over whether to report an accident, from fear that perhaps an undocumented (I would say illegal) immigrant who might not have insurance and might be found out, might be the result. Of course she has a good heart. But, following Al Gore’s “An inconvenient Truth” about climate change, there is a “Second inconvenient Truth”, and that concerns population growth in our own country. During the last few decades the population of our country has increased from around 150 million inhabitants in the 1950’s to over 320 million now. The driver of that increase has been immigration, legal and illegal. Every day our country becomes more and more paved over. The woods and fields have gone, the aquifers are depleted, the habitat has disappeared, the other species, including birds, with which we share this land are threatened by population growth and development. And yet no one discusses this. We must obviously be for humane treatment of anyone, but immigration must be limited to achieve a replacement level of zero population growth or our natural world will disappear.
4
@Wan Your suggestion seems to be that immigration is responsible for declines in bird populations, and closing our borders is the answer.
But birds can fly, and know no borders. Are you aware of how many bird species are declining because of habitat loss in the Central American countries where they spend close to half of each year? Just how, exactly, would closing our border help those birds?
Immigrants are not to blame for our outrageously high rate of per capita consumption, our transportation system which favors private gas guzzlers over public transportation, Amazon deliveries over local shops, or our fast-food hamburger culture that requires dedication of massive acreage to livestock feed.
No, these are homegrown American inventions. Blaming immigrants for our own wastefulness may be convenient but it's not the truth.
26
Thank you for being a guardian of the natural world and for urging others to wake up and get involved.
2
Dear Mrs. Renkl,
How we wait for your Monday gift to us! So, we sincerely do thank you ever so much!
2
Dear Ms. Renki,
Thank you. I live in the southern part of the Netherlands. Our National Bird Protection Society (Vogelbescherming) - partner of BirdLife International - has 150.000 subscribers and over 350 permanent volunteers. Over 3 days in Jan 23,24, and 25 2019 over 76.000 people were counting birds in their gardens, terraces, both in the country-side and in the cities. I have 5 bird-feeders and there are so many birds, I can't even count them. I take part since my retirement and it gives me enormous joy to watch. Every day. They have even become familiar with 12/yr old Longhair Weimaraner. Today is a sad day for your country, as your Charlatan in Chief announced the withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord. Sad as well for the over 200 countries who signed it.
16
Heads up, FeederWatch. Mexico, a country with an incredibly diverse bird population, is part of North America also.
6
The federal government doesn't force you to have children, drive an SUV, cut down trees, or use toxic pesticides. There are barely any birds left here, and very, very few honeybees. This has happened in my lifetime. I've noticed a lot of lawn pesticides and an increase in population and overdevelopment in my community. Yes, the government should ban toxic pesticides - meanwhile, you should stop buying them and stop hiring landscapers who use them. And stop having so many kids. We don't need 1950s population levels.
13
If it weren't for immigration, population levels in the US would actually be declining. Just sayin'.
7
I love birds, but I think I'm doing something wrong in the way I'm presenting food at my feeders. Last Winter, there was this one morning dove displaying aggressiveness by raising its wings up and charging towards other doves. I guess it wanted all the food on the ground for itself. Unfortunately, it made the mistake of doing this behavior towards a red squirrel. Ahem, in a few short seconds, there was nothing much left recognizable of that mourning dove. The squirrel tore that poor animal to shreds. I was in complete shock, and decided at that time maybe I wasn't cut out for feeding birds.
2
I’ve feed birds for many years (including for Project Feeder Watch), and I have watched squirrels and mourning doves (and many other kinds of birds) interact peacefully, without exception. I think what you experienced was highly unusual. Don’t let this stop you. Feeding and watching the birds keeps you in touch with the avian world, which is suffering right now. Plus, it’s fun!
10
In addition to counting, perhaps more effort should be put into seriously eliminating the sources of light pollution along the migratory routes of many bird species. There is an article here in the NYT that states that up to 600 million birds die every year in collisions with buildings. That's a lot of birds.
18
Thank you, Ms. Renkl. Local Audubon societies also have the Christmas Bird Count, which for 118 years has shown huge changes northward of the habitat center of many species and has been listed as one of the indicators of climate change. There is the Great Backyard Bird Count in February. Citizen science is important and people are encouraged to participate, alone or with others. This is fun, easy, interesting, and useful!
11
We feed birds in our yard but the squirrels, chipmunks and a groundhog also eat the seeds that fall. We're now seeing house finches, nuthatches, cardinals, mourning doves, sparrows, juncos, bluejays and hoping for goldfinches soon. They put on quite a show each day; sometimes it's a free-for-all feeding frenzy! It's well worth the effort but even if it were not so much fun, we know it's important to support nature as much as we can. Find your local Audubon or bird store, help the birds, and join in the fun.
11
Of course development of more and more high rises all over the eastern seaboard where I have lived is causing thousands of birds to die upon impact at night. The lights left on in these buildings act as a beacon of death. Turn the interior lights off!!! Except for the lights on building tops required by FAA for flight paths. Think twice about wind turbine farms, bird processors for birds that fly into them whether on land or over seas. Protect the precious birds. They are essential to the survival of life on earth.
10
My count of the mixed flock that is at my feeder will fluctuate wildly, depending on whether one or more of the neighborhood Cooper's hawks is hanging around my property.
6
"Of course, it takes a certain amount of interest to hang a bird feeder to begin with." And this is a very serious problem as I see it. People buy food in packages who may have no interest where their food comes from, or even that the birds on their plates are the cousins of those that attack the bags of garbage on the street. They do not see birds. They do not notice them at all. They are asleep to birds.
I mentioned to a young clerk at a store, when he asked how I was, that I had just come from a nearby park near Casco Bay here in Portland, ME and that I was cheered and calmed by seeing the water. When I named the place, he asked, "What's that? We were both standing in a store that was less than 10 minutes by vehicle from beautiful Casco Bay. He did not seem to know it existed, nor the name of the bay or how to arrive there. He is asleep to the natural world. This was very sad to me, and told him to get out a map or his GPS and go there. No excuses. Wake up.
10
And speaking of individual efforts to counter climate change, how about writing an article encouraging all these Brooklynites who bleat about climate change while ordering their entire lives from Amazon to try shopping local (and I don't mean driving their Suburbans to Whole Foods) rather than clogging our streets with delivery vans. A million and a half packages a day in NYC? Insane. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/27/nyregion/nyc-amazon-delivery.html
12
“How do you know but ev’ry Bird that cuts the airy way,
Is an immense world of delight, clos’d by your senses five?”
6
Thank you, Margaret, for your wonderful columns, which I look forward to each week, and for your beautifully written and structured book, which I know I will re-read over time.
My husband and I are backyard birdwatchers. We have found in recent years that if we put our Christmas tree out in the yard after the holidays, the birds appreciate the shelter. We also have a very old hydrangea tree; we leave all the dead, dry blooms on there and the birds appreciate that also.
I am on a quest to attract cedar waxwings, and think I need berries to do that. So that’s my next thing.
14
Several of us in our hometown many years ago realized the value of contiguous undisturbed lands. We were able to formulate a town committee to study and recommend purchases of these lands in conjunction with state funding.
It was not an easy process. Despite the "tree hugger" ridicule, open opposition from developers and some fiscally conservative politicians, we finally were successful in our efforts.
My reward is seeing our winged friends thrive in their natural environs. The deer, turkeys and foxes are also in agreement.
You can make a difference. It starts in your own back yard, realizing the peace and joy that birds can bring to your life and to the lives of others.
Watch out, this joy can be contagious!
13
Great article! I'd like to put in a plug for Nature's Notebook which is run by the USA National Phenology Network. More citizen science opportunities run by wonderful people. Lot's of great ways to get involved. Nature's Notebook also does observations of butterflies and plants. https://www.usanpn.org/natures_notebook
9
@WaterWitch I'm a crazy bird lady, just like my mother was. I didn't know about Nature's Notebook. Thank you for sharing this. I just signed up for the newsletter.
4
Individuals can have an impact. Two ideas from this side of the universe to promote more humane farming practices:
1) Only buy "cage free eggs"
2) Refuse to buy or order veal (the treatment of young cows to produce this luxury is horrific).
Thanks to Ms. Renkl for reminding us we can make a difference.
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@John Jabo Another idea is to keep your cats indoors! I love cats, I have two rescue cats myself ... but I know cats outdoors are killing machines, attacking birds and other small mammals.
Keeping pet cats inside would make a significant difference in reducing bird loss. Also, it's healthier for the cat (no cars to run them over inside your house, or poisons to accidentally ingest).
My cats seem perfectly happy indoors. There's always a perfectly comfortable cushy chair to sit on, or a sunny window to look out.
9
What about Squirrels (aka “tree rats”)? They eat eggs; and, if they get into the attic gnaw on electrical insulation. The local SPCA nurtures them and releases them into the wild. I worked at a research plant where a squirrel got into a terminal and was instantly fried. The plant was shut down for several hours.
1
We used to have a lot more stray cats, now we have very few. We also have no more birds. I used to hear cat fights, now I don't, yet there were always hundreds of birds singing loudly every morning, despite the presence of stray cats. So stop blaming the cats. The birds have only recently started disappearing, so obviously it's not the cats who are killing them, I'm guessing it's all the lawn pesticides used by landscapers, since no one here knows how to maintain their own lawn.
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If we think individual actions such as this will save us, we're doomed. Only world governments have the power to actually make enough of a difference to save us.
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@dnaden33 Such actions encourage people to put pressure on government, so this is a valuable first step, however minor at the outset.
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@dnaden33
Think globally, act locally.
9
@dnaden33 We are the government.
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An avid enthusiast and hobby naturalist, I’ve been watching and listening to our little dinosaur friends for 30 years at my home or in my travels. I live in-between busy us route 1 and interstate 95.
I’m happy to report that just this year, a rose-breasted grosbeak and an indigo bunting appeared at my feeder. However, I’ve only seen the cedar waxwing and a common wood snipe but once.
A pair of mating cardinals (mate for life) that live in the the thickets of a neighbor’s home have been my gracious guests for 15 years! Even a male cardinal with alopecia visited three years in succession! Wow, did he cause excitement at our home!
Please don’t cut your trees, friends, and feed year-round!
The joy our feathered residents is and will be irreplaceable.
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@ChrisB. I too have a pair of mated cardinals in my back garden and I live downtown in a large city! Even so, they seem to love the bushes and ivy in my little garden, and it gives me great joy to see them sitting on the edge of the birdbath. I also see mockingbirds, woodpeckers, and doves quite often, and all types of smaller birds that I'm not good at identifying. And, of course, grey squirrels are always around. All these creatures give me a little hope.
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@CateS
SQUIRRELS? Good for birds? See my reply/post to “John jabs”.
Many thanks, Marg Renkl, for making NYT readers aware of the the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Project FeederWatch. On a related note... as a supporting member of the Lab, if I may, here is a link to the Lab's Winter Birdfeeding Tips:
https://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/notes/BirdNote01_WinterFeeding.pdf
This activity will augment sustenance for many, many birds during the long, dark days of North American winter, and will also provide soulfully-enriching delight and enjoyment to those who participate.
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@Skeptical Cynic The pdf appears blank on my screen, but I live near the Lab so I can check in there.
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@Skeptical Cynic
Just google cornell winter birdfeeding tips and you should be able to find the link to it... thanks!
1
We moved into our current house in the burbs 25 years ago. I put up a birdbath at my wife's request.
There were plenty of birds taking advantage of it then.
Now there are far fewer and the species you see have changed.
Over the same time I noticed that my trips up the Taconic Pky have changed. I drove the road back and forth to college then years later driving my sons to camp.
Your windshield used to get full of squashed bugs in summer. No longer Meanwhile over the past few years we have invasions of really small ants in the summer. Never saw them inside until maybe 7 years ago. At the same time the forests along the road look a lot sicker. Far more dead trees.
The street I grew up on was like a tunnel with huge old oaks and maples all along it. Those are all gone now. Maples are dying from the top down which seems odd. Lots of dead trees in local 'woods'. You're seeing far more trees falling down now during storms - pulling out roots.
Lots of signs of major changes.
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@cynicalskeptic
I noticed the reduced bug strikes too. Same thing is happening in Europe.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/05/where-have-all-insects-gone
Is it because cars are more aerodynamic and the bugs avoid impact by riding the slipstream over the cars?
Or is it something else?
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@Skeptical Cynic
Yes, raked windshields.
Also highway mowing seems to cut a wider swath on either side, and is done more frequently. Lots of those windshield bugs were lacewings and such that seem to prefer more of a meadow.
2
I don’t like your characterization of the “sublimely unconcerned.” As someone who feels and sees the effect of climate change daily — because I live in a forest and am an obsessed gardener and wildlife lover — I’ll tell you why that makes me angry. Yes, there are people who just don’t care. And, as you note, there are those who deny. But is everyone else who isn’t panicking or protesting necessarily someone who “feel(s) exempt from personal responsibility”? No. Sometimes a person has to just keep on living their life the best way they can, because the alternatives are going crazy trying to do everything perfectly right, or getting so depressed over the state of the world that you give up. I listen to people proclaim that they are religiously green because they drive a electric car (powered by fossil fuels burned at the power plant), recycle everything (but they are still buying new things every day, and much that going’s into recycling doesn’t get recycled), buy only organic food and drink (wrapped in plastic!), etc. But they are just virtue signaling, while living their lives with an enormous carbon footprint, and leaving a gigantic waste strewn in their wake (flying everywhere, consuming in a big way). I’m so sick of it that pose that I have stopped listening. So here’s the deal: I am living my life in as small a way as I can, and I don’t care whether anyone thinks I am “blissfully unaware” just because I don’t drive a Prius and wear hemp clothing.
9
My mother, who died in 2010, was a life-long birder. She noticed the decline in number and species way back in the 1970’s, in New Jersey, attributing the cause to human beings--overdevelopment, decline in tree cover, decline in open grassy fields.
It is so sad that she was right, but I am often thankful that she is not alive to see it. My husband and I saw this first-hand as Massachusetts residents. In the 1990’s, the first sign of spring was the return of hundreds of noisy red-winged blackbirds to our neighborhood, drawn by the bug-life of the vernal pools. By the time we left Massachusetts for Arizona, the spring was missing their cacophony. The bluejays that had kept us company in the summer were missing. The number of robins had decreased. Our mornings and evenings were increasingly silent.
Here in Arizona, we see hummingbirds, quail, goldfinches, and the occasional flycatcher, mountain bluebird, kestrel, roadrunner, hawk, and owl. But we know that these will disappear, too, if mines are built, and rivers polluted.
When will we humans learn?
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The data collected by Project FeederWatch help scientists assess the extent of bird population decline and changes in bird migration and behavior. Moreover, there's very little that can brighten a dreary winter day more than watching a pair of gorgeous Baltimore orioles enjoying their favorite feeder food
-- grape jam -- right outside my window.
6
We not only count them, and are concerned about their numbers and welfare, but the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology is one of the primary benefactors of our charitable giving. Many many thanks for surfacing this crucial issue and worthwile project in the pages of our hometown "paper".
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Another great column and with links to be active in helping birds and the environment ~ thank you! Growing up in Alabama I used to watch the migrations, they were like an endless river flowing south through the sky. I haven't seen anything like that for decades.
"..increasingly, I’ve come to believe that the difference between concerned people and unconcerned people is largely a matter of personal investment. People who don’t feel, in a personal way, what’s happening to the world are better able to put it out of their minds." The 'concerned' versus the 'unconcerned' is baffling. I live in Nashville now, and when I was still taking grandson to all the parks, we encountered so many loving, caring, participatory parents and their little ones that it was a joy. I'm amazed that these same exemplary families are still carting out multiple plastic grocery bags, getting bottled-in-plastic water by the case, driving enormous cars, and many living in 'castles' that would accommodate a multitude. I know they love their kids, it's obvious they are 'invested. But I see little in the way of sustainable living.
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Thanks to Margaret Renkl for this terribly a sad but perfectly true article. As an avid bird watcher who has traveled back and forth across America many times on birding trips, I can attest to the catastrophic decline in bird numbers of all species.
It seems to me that a real push to get Project Feeder Watch into all our schools would be helpful. Having cameras located on active feeders and fed into inner city schools could get city kids involved.
Supporting local politicians who can be convinced of the merits of the program would help them find funding, for example. Kids of all ages would probably enjoy becoming involved, and as they become involved, they will become aware of the dimensions of the crisis. Make no mistake, we are headed for calamity if we don't take action soon.
Vote Democratic in 2020!
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Vote democratic? I live in a blue state, in a so-called progressive town, all the people breed like rabbits, drive SUVs, use lawn pesticides, and overdevelop like crazy. I hardly see any birds any more. When I was a kid in the 70s, the raucous birdsong in the morning was deafening. Now it's a big deal to hear one blue jay or cardinal.
2
I spend many months in L.A. and many months in an city in east Asia. There are few birds in my backyard in California, mostly hummingbirds, in the other place, an abundance of birds of all types. The tree habitat in Asia is flush, in California - not so much.
2
Thank you Ms. Renkl for writing this prescient piece on the decline of birds and for highlighting the very important work of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology's Project Feeder Watch. I am nearly 50 years old and have been a self described 'bird nerd' since I was a little child. I was the little kid in the backyard with well used binoculars looking up in the sky at all the birds flying high. Sadly I have witnessed less and less of this activity over the many decades. I still reside less than a mile away from where I was born and raised in Los Angeles. I have several bird feeders and water out with the hopes that I am providing a sanctuary or temporary respite for migrating birds and year round dwellers. For the last few months I have been journaling the various species in my own yard. I truly believe that birds provide a direct link to the health of our community and earth. I hope that the little work that I do benefits the many birds out there, for their survival depends on our responsibility. And our survival depends on their health.
2
Thank you for sharing the link to Project Feeder Watch. My wife has been participating in the Cornell short version backyard watch for several years. We put up feeders hanging from our deck when we moved into the house 17 years ago and she started keeping a diary of what she saw. It's fascinating to monitor the patterns of different species, when the migrating birds come and go, the occasional population crashes and rebirths, etc.
I understand the comments that bird feeding is not going to solve the climate crisis, but I agree it raises awareness of our environment. Plus, bird watching is a great way to pass some time in the morning or afternoon and educational to boot.
8
I don't count them, I imagine I should, but I do feed them. I have a cottage upstate with a bird feeder that we keep well stocked with a variety of seed and suet and get a discount by being part of our local bird feeders club.
In the city we do the same. No food scraps. Only real seed of various kinds. The real challenge is to lure the pigeons away with one feeding and then while they're busy provide seed of the other birds.
It's worthwhile knowing that we are contributing even in a small way to these critical important beings. There's a pair of Cardinals that stay near our apartment and can be heard chirping as soon as we come out with our seed and to walk the dog.
I've come to call Oscar the magic dog, and he his for our feathered friends. No sooner than the birds see him and start gathering and voila! Food appears from nowhere.
Every time I feed the birds I'm reminded how we humans have to learn to live with rather than exploit the rest of nature.
For me that includes not eating them. I have a suspicion that the admonition "thou shalt not kill" was meant to teach us that we could prosper just fine from a plant based diet. But that's another story.
6
This will be my 10th season counting for Project FeederWatch. The decline in over the past couple of years has been significant in my yard but I still have hope that we can save the birds. I would like to think that taking one small action (like counting birds) might snowball and lead to other actions as people reconnect to what is happening in the natural world. Thank you Ms. Renkl for bringing attention to this program.
3
My yard is usually a riot of birdsong until the Cooper's hawk flies by, so it will be a job to count everything from rufous hummers to ravens, but I'm in.
5
@Hector
Same with me. Your ravens don't try to gang up on the hawk?
Is this program available in Canada?
@Evelyn Phillips, yes. FeederWatch includes Canada.
@Evelyn Phillips The program is available in Canada. Check out https://www.birdscanada.org/volunteer/pfw/
@Evelyn Phillips
Here you go...
https://www.birdscanada.org/volunteer/pfw/
There are no educated people on the other side of the aisle.
1
Something other than forest fires, politics and shootings.
How refreshing, yet sad that birds are disappearing.
4
here is a concern I've had for years: Bird reproductive systems are extremely sensitive to insecticides . It's obvious that almost all bird seed producers spray their fields during growth and probably for preservation of product . There is only rare advertising of organic seed and prices are much higher. I cant get an answer to my concern even from Audubon. It's almost a dirty secret. Are we bird feeders and producers therefore doing great harm to our bird population? So please would any authority comment on this subject. And also if this is I suspect , we should all switch to organic bird seed .
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Most birds around my area have all but disappeared, bats too. This has been the third year of the "great decline." There are no bugs.
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@dbrum990 . . . I had a collision with a single bug on my windshield this summer and I swear, had I seen it coming, I would have tried to dodge it. Long live bugs!
9
I have not been doing Feeder Watch formally, but I can tell you that I am shocked at the lower numbers of birds that I have been seeing over the past two years at my feeder. I thought that there was something wrong with the feeder, so I emptied it and cleaned it to be sure it was not clogged, but the birds just aren't coming. Very shocking and sad.
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Blue Jays and American Crows have only narrowly, recently and weakly recovered from the West Nile virus.
Neither the Black Capped Chickadee nor the Tufted Titmouse have been so fortunate.
Nor have humans in Illinois.
Climate change has made a major mess of the timing and nature of migration for all birds in all seasons.
6
Margaret, as always I treasure the opportunity to ready your column in the NYT. I appreciate the attention you pay to nature, and our bird life in particular.
I'll share a couple observations. I recently returned from a week's visit to the Georgia coast, and was struck by the abundance of birds of all sorts. Certainly, there were the birds we associate with the coastal environment: gulls, pelicans, cormorants, etc. But the birds I've seen fewer and fewer of in my Atlanta neighborhood, such as jays, cardinals, finches and wrens - - I saw and heard them aplenty at my coastal retreat. So I wondered strongly about the effects that our suburban lifestyles are having on local bird life.
My suspicions were partially confirmed by reading a couple articles concerning why we should be curtailing our lawn care, particularly in the fall. Suburban lawn care provides little of what birds need, and it often destroys potential food supplies. Our local birds thrive on the seeds they find in drying flowers, both cultivated and wild, and it gets them through the cold months we have experience in the South. Advice was also presented to build brush piles in our yards - - made of leaves, twigs and fallen limbs. These piles also provide refuge from the elements for our feathered friends.
Performing a bird census and setting out winter food in feeders is all well and good. But there are many other things we can do to assist.
19
I used to participate in Project Feeder Watch until the declining number became too depressing. Birds that I used to see in flocks have simply disappeared: Evening Grosbeaks, Pinyon Jays, Least Goldfinches and some singular beauties like Kestrels and Red Headed Woodpeckers. I no longer put up feeders because of the neighborhood cats both domesticated and feral. I do plant for wildlife and put out a birdbath. Thanks for reminding me that there's a good reason to participate no matter how depressing.
21
I suppose feeding a few birds will both help those birds, and the humans that enjoy watching those birds, but folks have long been doing and we still lost almost 1/3 of all our birds. Feel-good efforts are fine but we shouldn't fool ourselves, the situation is going to get more dire for birds, wildlife in general, and eventually people, because our government is in the hands of greedy fools who think nothing beyond short-tern profits. And they, and other governments too as varied as China, Iran, Brazil, France, are promoting even more rapid human population growth which will both increasingly intrude onto remaining habitat for birds and other wildlife, as well as require use of poisons to produce the food humans require adding further damage. Best to be realistic, even if you put out a feeder.
5
@Barry Schiller Another way to look at it is this: "all that is required for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing."
You're right. The current occupant and his corporate cronies don't care about environmental destruction. But, that doesn't mean people can't try to make even a small difference in their back yards.
Despair certainly won't help.
14
@J, prounced jay I really hope you are right. I felt catatonic reading the NYT article that there is now a glut of oil on the market... and that Canada takes a big part of the blame (I hate Trudeau so much... He might as well follow Trump out of the Paris accord rather than pretend he cares).
But it is true that despair will get us nowhere. But even reading this lovely article, I was thinking "what difference does it make to convince my neighbour when governments and corporations are working hand in hand to profit off the earth's destruction?" I Googled: "will human civilization collapse because of climate change", went to bed and had nightmares all night long.
2
I have enjoyed immeasurably my participation in PFW and greatly look forward to participating again this year. It is easy, fun, and, for me, a source of laughter, beauty, and wonder on a dreary winter day. That it provides valued information to committed individuals working on behalf of birds, makes the program even more special. I am honored and grateful to take part. Thanks Ms Renkl for another wonderful piece. You make every Monday brighter.
13
Growing up on Long Island in the 60’s it was always one of my assigned chores to keep the bird feeder filled. I didn’t think much about it. I could recognize a Red Wing Black Bird, Blue Jay, Sparrows... I don’t recall much else.
I have resided in a very rural area of Dutchess County NY for 10 years now and have been maintaining multiple feeders for those 10 years. The bears and pesky squirrels have forced me to set up a system of steel wire and pulleys to raise and lower the feeders. It took a lot of trial and error, but I have a system that works.
I am constantly rewarded with a vast variety of local and migrating birds. When there is snow cover we have 100’s of birds visiting, it blows my mind. I have learned to identify many species. We are blessed with a small stream, ground cover, tall trees, and ever greens, it really is perfect, and my friends are well fed with a variety of feed. One of my faves is a large Pileated Woodpecker that somehow manages to hang on to the suet feeder and chow down, At night, the deer, foxes, raccoons, and skunks forage under the feeders. Our yard is a zoo and we enjoy all of it.
Thank you for this article. I will be taking part in the survey this winter.
42
@Kingdon You are a lucky person.
1
Speaking as a lifelong birder and consevationist ...
Counting birds doesn't necessarily help to protect them.
10
@Joel Geier But it draws more people into thinking about birds, and by extension nature. It grows people's awareness. Which is the beginning.
26
@Joel Geier Speaking as a lifelong birder and conservationist...It is a way to get people with little exposure to the natural world, especially young people, involved. It also helps with data collection. It leads to broader conversations about deforestation, habitat preservation, pesticides, climate change...
6
@CCForbes It's a beginning but it's not an end. Counting birds is a neutral pursuit that does little to help them, unless it translates into conservation activism.
Telling people that you're doing "something" just by counting birds is the wrong message for our time. I believe Kenn Kaufmann was the one who coined the phrase, "Counting the birds down to zero."
In our current environment, complacency is not helpful. And conversations are not enough.
This essay makes a factual error by asserting that "citizen-science initiatives like Project FeederWatch" contributed to the study cited, about the loss of 3 billion North American birds. In fact, if you read the cited paper, you'll see that the study was based on much more focused, rigorous surveys that require higher levels of volunteer commitment (mainly the North American Breeding Bird Survey).
The data gathering in these more casual backyard projects played no real role.
Helping people from economically disadvantaged communities get out to see birds and experience nature can help to change the world. Canvassing on conservation issues can help. Counting birds at your suburban backyard feeder does nothing, contrary to what this essay claims.
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Thank you, from a birder who can't put it out of my mind, not for long. Who finds it impossible "to be informed about this calamity and yet calmly proceed." How to live with this "boggling heartbreak" to borrow words from Barbara Kingsolver.
If the world is less wild everyday, if that be more than sinking feeling but true fact, then to be a true environmentalist--one who lives loving and needing the wild world--is to feel the earth is dying around you. From a myriad wounds and ills, many human borne, whether named or unknown, this splendid world we've inherited is passing away little by little, forever.
It can't, it won't all die, not completely. Much will survive: mallards, robins, cattails--the list is long, but so is the list of what will be lost. So to be true we must realize we are in a time of great extinction. What good would it do, now, to mark with lament the passing of any single part? Seaside sparrow, prairie orchid, mountain plover. Words against the age.
"If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart,
Absent thee from felicity awhile,
And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,
To tell my story."
~Hamlet
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Interesting fact: Dr. Bird sits on the Board of Bird Studies Canada. He’s a lovely, smart man, and a pretty good ice hockey player too. Thanks for the great article, and promoting birding.
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(Hard to believe these beautiful animals are related to some of the most terrifying, bloodthirsty animals that ever walked this earth). The other day, I watched mesmerized from my 5th floor office window as a trio of crows harassed a large red-tailed hawk. While this went on for 15-20 minutes it occurred to me that if that hawk had wanted to, he could have torn the three of them to pieces, yet his main purpose just seemed to be avoiding them. Nature's ways are curious sometimes.
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I saw the same thing with a snowy owl.
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From the column:
"Registration [for "Project FeederWatch"] includes a kit to help new backyard birders identify common feeder species. Figuring out what kind of bird is visiting is half the fun of hanging a feeder, and it’s one of the ways children are likely to enlist the whole family in this project."
A Comment and Lamentation:
Having lived all of my 70 years in Brooklyn and Manhattan apartments w/o backyard rights (or, mostly, backyards) and being childless, I guess it doesn't matter that the referenced 'kit' would have to be the best 'how to' ever assembled if to get me to the point where I could identify any bird not a pigeon.
But I'm working hard, if as yet fruitlessly, at getting my wife to put our garbage made of glass, plastic, metal and Styrofoam in the separate 'bin' I maintain in order to put the stuff in the separate garbage bin my high-rise landlord 'keeps' in every floor's service-elevator vestibule for separated disposal of those 'materials.'
s/Love Me Even If I'm A Lazy Liberal?
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Thank you for this! I just signed up. I have feeders out at my place on Orcas Island, Washington, and watching the birds is my greatest joy. If I can help them by reporting on them, all the better!
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I love my feeder but yesterday a hawk came to visit and took a visitor with him.
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I have a 4th floor apt in Seattle with a balcony, on which I have a feeder. It's a source of great satisfaction.
I hope, when humanity faces extinction, that we show the good sense that dinosaurs did, and evolve into something as cool as birds.
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We have two love birds in a large cage in our living room and count them as a part of our family. Those little devils as smart as they are can get into plenty of mischief, but wake us each morning with their squawking and songs.
Birds in every way are our teachers and link us to the earth, sky and deep time as representatives of dinosaurs thought extinct 65 million years ago. Birds have shown us how to fly not only literally, but into our imaginations. That we can relate to them despite our vast differences shows our deep connection with all of life.
To lose them at this point would be beyond tragic. It would be like losing part of ourselves in our indifference and short sightedness.
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Having watched birds for more than 50 years (I started when I was about 6 or 7), I increasingly find birdwatching painful as the decline in species and numbers is tragic. But this fall all of a sudden the Blue Jays that had all but disappeared from my backyard in Ontario are back. I don't think I had looked at a Blue Jay with as much excitement and interest since I started birdwatching as a child in Connecticut. . . or maybe since the 1980s when, as a university student, I saw my first large migrating flock over Chicago's Jackson Park during a spring bird count.
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How ironic. The first rule of wildlife watching is "Don't feed the wildlife." You are fooling yourself if you think either feeding or counting birds will do anything other than give you an illusion of agency. Reduce your carbon footprint if you really want to help them. Think about it.
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@Barbyr How ironic. The people you're preaching to, just by virtue of being concerned about bird populations, are probably doing more to reduce their carbon footprint than you are. All we know that you're doing for sure is scolding others.
Before attending to the mote in thy neighbor's eye, attend to the beam in thy own. Think about it.
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This is after all, a count of the birds that use a birdfeeder. It indicates whether thenumbers of those birds are changing year to year.
There is also, when you do something on behalf of another being, a sense of caring that develops that can lead people beyond this to fight to protect habitat, or towards other actions that will enhance their - and perhaps our - chances of survival.
But the connection, the spark of concern for another species, gets triggered by observing them and getting to know about their habits and needs in the first place. No irony in any of it.
And there's no indication that bird feeders have been a negative influence on bird populations.
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I love my bird feeder but sadly my three squirrels, Fat Tony and his buddies, empty it before the birds can get to it, stuffing themselves till they waddle away. We even bought a squirrel proof feeder which also tended to be bird proof too.
I try to put seed out late in the day since the Cardinals are dusk feeders but then the other birds don't get to it. We rarely see blue jays which were populous when I was growing up in the 1960's through mid 1970's.
We do get lots of chickadees and tufted tit-mouses, but not many cardinals and gold finches.
We used to see redwing blackbirds in the marsh down the road but haven't seen these in years. It's beyond sad that so many among us feel no empathy for the innocent animals that we share this planet with. Humans have created this hellish problem but, sadly, all will pay the price for human selfishness and greed.
Thanks for the links to the various programs. If everyone would make even a small sacrifice we could at least slow climate change. It's truly maddening that so many are so willing to do nothing at all.
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@sharon
We have plenty of gluttonous squirrels around our yard, for whom no deterrent to bird food is too formidable. They are also indifferent to their considerably more vast eating options than those of the birds. However, the squirrels have worked out a system in which everyone comes out okay: they leap onto a bird feeder, crashing it to the lawn, the seed scatters out, then everyone, squirrels and birds alike, eat. They don’t bother one another. It’s really rather clever. It’s a bit costly to us humans, but we will do our part in the cooperative eating system.
Thanks for what you wrote and for your care of animals. Take care.
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@NM here is Western NC we have a system too: if you put out a bird feeder the bears come and tear it down. In my little subdivision of 45 homes every single resident who put out bird feeders gets ransacked. One neighbor had a feeder near his back patio and was storing bird seed on said patio - and the bear tore into his screened in porch causing a lot of damage. He moved the feeder to the front yard and the bear simply went over there and ransacked it. Feeders have to be closely monitored, or better yet, not installed in places with high bear populations.
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@Mary
No bears yet, thank God :-) although the squirrels might eat as much. Fat Tony is reeeaaaly fat, lol.
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The gap between those who feel responsible about climate change and those that do not is a matter of philosophy and the way people consider themselves in the world. Those who feel responsible do so because they feel and know that they are intimately connected with or an extension of nature and the universe. Those who do not see themselves as separate entities and separate from our world and entitled as humans to do what what they will. If we do not wake up to the former, the depredations will continue until it can not be denied by anyone. We are in for a bumpy ride if we survive at all unless the human race wakes up to our absolute dependence and interdependence with life on this dear earth.
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But if I'm counting birds how am I supposed to look at my phone? Can't really do both, you know. Priorities!
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Thank you for this Op-Ed. That three billion birds have been decimated is frightening and deeply disturbing. The planet's health can be measured by the health of bird populations. Cornell's Project FeederWatch, the Christmas Bird Count, keeping cats indoors, and advocating for saving habitats are all some of the ways we can contribute to saving our beloved birds now and for the future.
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Having lived in the same 3rd floor apartment for almost a decade, I have come to know all the feathered friends that reside in the big backyard tree. I am grateful to their songs and their antics, which remind me that we share our city space with important wildlife. I have been feeding the regulars for years, and every once in a while during migration we welcome a new visitor - a couple of years back, a rose-breasted grosbeak captivated my entire household as he fed on our sill. Thank you, Cornell Lab and fellow bird scientists, for the reminder to look around and take care of our winged friends.
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I love pf, I think this is our 20th year, and it makes me happy to think that we've contributed so much data that I hope will be useful to scientists, now or in the future
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I only recently got into bird watching the past few months. I moved into a rental house in August which is surrounded by trees and shrubbery and is across the street from a beautiful park. I started by putting up one small bird feeder from a tree where I could see it from my patio. The results were awesome: within a day there were lots of birds at my feeder. In fact they emptied it in three days! Since then I have put up three more feeders and one bird house. Also a bird bath. We even have an old half dead oak tree on the property where a family of red-headed woodpeckers have made their nest. Birds are losing their habitats and I figure that even the little bit I can do can help them. For example, I won’t dare cut down that old half dead oak tree. We leave most of the property alone with no landscaping so that the birds can make their homes and get their food. I wish everyone could enjoy birds and help them as much as I do. It’s one little way to fight climate change.
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@Mike L That's a double-edged sword if you don't continually feed them.
I try to help out in the winter months.
@Mike L
Looking back over many years I feel your joy.
Welcome to the birder world!
There are so many ways to enjoy them.
Seeing and hearing a new bird.....wow!
Domestic and foreign travel. Local birder groups.
Birds are the heirs of raptor dinosaurs that survived a mighty awful climate changing event 65+ million years ago. After thriving for a 100+ million years from their origin.
Along with the bony fish they have proved their mettle.
Humans?
Modern humans go back 300,000 years ago. But our great ape ancestors go back 13 + million years ago.
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I have been feeding the birds for years, and also participated in the Cornell program. Words don't adequately convey the enjoyment and meaning derived from caring for these wonderful beings, and it assuredly is time well spent! Thank you for this inducement to joy Ms. Renkl!
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