Birds are in a decline

Not a day goes by that we don’t see them — if we’re looking. In the trees, on the ground and, of course, in the sky. They are at their most majestic when in flight. Soaring through the lower atmosphere with a blue sky as background, a wonderful sight. The bigger ones catch our attention most it seems. We try to identify them — hawk, vulture, falcon or the bald eagle. Some of us feed them at our feeding stations. Some of us hunt certain types of birds and look forward to the bounty of our hunt at the dinner table.

The more common birds we tend to take for granted: sparrows, black birds, starlings and so on. There are so many of them. We seem to be attracted to the mega-majestic birds. Here in the Grand Coulee area we are fortunate because we see bald and golden eagles somewhat regularly. Unfortunately, some recent science has shown us that birds are in a decline. More specifically, some of the common birds. A recently completed study, Decline of the North American Avifauna analyzed decades of data on North American birds. The results of the study show us that the continent’s bird population has declined by 29% since 1970.

The birds most heavily hit by the decline are the most common. The study points out that 90% of the missing birds are from just 12 bird families, many of them familiar: sparrows, warblers, blackbirds, finches, larks, starlings and swallows. About 19 species have each lost more than 50 million individuals. Those in trouble are the red-winged blackbird and the dark-eyed junco. Those most commonly seen and which were introduced to the North American continent, house sparrow and European starling, are in trouble too. In sheer numbers, there are about three billion fewer birds out there eating insects and seeds and also pollenating.

What I found interesting is the research team also used data from a weather radar network to show the number of birds migrating through America’s nighttime skies. Their data shows a decline of 14% since 2007. The study did not focus on causes. It’s known that habitat loss and degradation are the largest changes behind the decline of birds. Researchers cannot estimate accurately bird loss due to habitat loss or other dangers like pesticide use, disappearance of insect prey, or climate change. Other threats are easier to measure. The biggest of these threats and by a big margin, is domestic cats, which kill an estimated 2.4 billion birds every year. Window collisions — 600 million, vehicles — 214 million, power lines — 32 million, and industrial towers — about 6 million. Wind turbines have been sited, yet the bird kill numbers are reasonably small.

Here’s the weather data for the month of September 2019 from my home weather station. Precipitation was 1.34 inches; the heaviest came with the storm around the 18th. The all-time high precipitation was 2.08 inches in 1985; the all-time mean is 0.48 inches, and the most recent totally dry September was in 2012. Our high temperature was 92.1˚F on the 3rd, and our low was 37.6˚F on the 30th. The mean for the month was 61.4˚F. The all-time high was 104˚F back in 1938. The all-time low was 30˚F in 1982, while the all-time mean for September is 63.8˚F.

Halloween is fast approaching and you may want to know when the full moon for October occurs. We will see a full moon on Oct. 13. This full moon is also called the Hunter’s Moon. Enjoy your Halloween — treat, though, no tricks!