The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Bird species face threat of climate change
The expression “a canary in a coal mine” carries an early warning of approaching danger.
And some birds are now making changes in their migratory patterns behaviors — adaptive behaviors that conservation organizations say are warning signs of the dangerous impact of climate change on the species.
“We’ve definitely seen that anecdotal evidence of shifting ranges for some of our key species,” said Eli Schaffer, center director at the Greenwich Audubon Center.
Since 1985, the Greenwich Audubon Center has held its Quaker Ridge Hawk Watch annually to observe thousands of birds of prey as they migrate over the site. Schaffer said the watch is the center’s longest-running communityscience effort, which provides data for conservation work.
Schaffer said some of the key bird species have made changes in their ranges: from the everyday songbird like the cardinal, which has moved farther north over the past decade, to a birdfeeder species such as the red-belly woodpecker, which is now more common in Connecticut.
“That’s one that even 30 years ago was not very common in Greenwich, and now it’s one of our favorite bird-feeder species that we highlight every year around this time of year,” Schaffer said. “So there are those anecdotal pieces where we see that some species that we didn’t see much of we see more of now.”
Robert LaFrance, policy director at Audubon Connecticut, said the changes seen in the migratory patterns for some birds are due to the impact of climate change. But he warned that the adaptations may have their limits.
“The problem is, for some species, they are only going to be able to adapt so far and then they will become extinct,” LaFrance said.
The migratory patterns of a species can also greatly affect the larger ecosystem, he said, which could make Connecticut wildlife look different moving forward.
“It’s not just one bird species — it’s the whole shift of the ecosystem in sort of a different direction,” LaFrance said.
Last year, the National Audubon Society published a report warning that twothirds of North America’s bird species are at risk of extinction due to climate change.
Some bird species in Connecticut such as the saltmarsh sparrow are already facing higher risks of extinction due to immediate impacts on their habitats. The high-tidal marsh nesting species has long been threatened by rising sea levels and increasing storm activity associated
with climate change, according to Corrie FolsomO’Keefe, director of bird conservation at Audubon Connecticut.
“There’s substantial concern that habitat is going to be dramatically impacted and dramatically reduced in years to come,” FolsomO’Keefe said. “It may not necessarily be in the next 10 years, but by 2050 the saltmarsh sparrow may be on the verge of extinction.”
She said conservation organizations recognize they will need to find innovative solutions to help the saltmarsh sparrow survive.
“We’ve got about 10 years to figure out strategies that are going to work — and there’s a huge push right now to be really innovative and get as many projects going as possible so that the species has a fighting chance,” she said.
Jenny Dickson, wildlife division director for the state Department of Energy Environmental Protection, said the state’s Wildlife Action Plan is one of many
efforts to address conservation efforts to help wildlife such as the saltmarsh sparrow. The document required from states for some federal grants assesses a wide array of species, habitats, and environmental factors to provide a framework for conserving wildlife.
“When you look at all of these wildlife actions plans across the country, what it does is it really creates a road map for how we can conserve wildlife as a nation,” Dickson said.
The plan has also already started showing dividends for some species, according to Dickson. When the action plan was first written in 2005, bald eagles were sparse in the state.
“We were able to focus a lot more attention on conservation, monitoring, and habitat protection issues through state wildlife grants,” Dickson said. “At this point, our eagle population has grown exponentially, certainly in the last five to eight years.”
But she said funding
available through the state wildlife grant program is nowhere near enough to accomplish all of the actions needed.
One key factor to help states moving forward may be the passage of Recovering America’s Wildlife Act, a federal bill that includes $ 1.5 trillion in infrastructure investments, she said. Among the investments in the bill are protections for birds and wildlife.
“The idea behind it is to make sure that wildlife populations are here for future generations to enjoy,” Dickson said.
The landscape legislation would also allow states to do more in their action plans and provide stable funding, she said.
“This piece of legislation closes that gap,” Dickson said. “Now is the time and if we wait we’re going to run into those situations where more species become threatened and become endangered.”