By GENE BULLOCK
Kitsap Audubon
Our backyard hosts an avian choir each spring as our resident purple finches and black-headed grosbreaks fill the air with their songs before breakfasting on our sunflower hearts. I find unbearable the thought of spring without their heart-filling music. But a seven-year study just unveiled by National Audubon concludes that they’re among the many bird species at risk because of global warming.
The seven-year study by Audubon scientists led to the conclusion that global warming is the number one threat to our birds. More than half the 518 North American bird species studied will lose 50 percent of their current climate range by 2080. Many of these species could go extinct without decisive action to protect the havens they hold on to today.
Kitsap Audubon has been conducting its annual Kitsap County Christmas Bird Count for more than 40 years. I’ve seen dramatic declines just in the 10 years I have been organizing Kitsap Audubon’s annual Christmas Bird Count. The annual CBC is an Audubon tradition started in 1900 when market hunters were hunting many species to the brink of extinction for their meat and feathers. That year Audubon ornithologist Frank Chapman and a group of Audubon friends decided to replace the annual “Christmas shoot” with a nonlethal bird count. The tradition blossomed, and today there are more than 2,000 Christmas Bird Count circles throughout the western hemisphere. It has become a valuable source of data used to track migration patterns and monitor the health of individual species.
National Audubon ornithologists analyzed more than 40 years of historical climate data and millions of historical bird records from the U.S. Geological Survey’s North American Breeding Bird Survey and the Audubon Christmas Bird Count to understand the links between where the birds live and the climatic conditions that support them.
The Audubon study shows how shifting climate conditions — the building blocks for ecosystems and species survival — may have catastrophic consequences when balances are tipped.
While some species will be able to adapt to those changes, many of our most familiar and iconic species will not. Global warming threatens the basic fabric of life on which birds – and the rest of us – depend, and we have to act quickly and decisively if we are going to avoid catastrophe for them and us.
Climate change is adding to economic pressures for growth and development that are obliterating wildlife habitat around the world. Agricultural irrigation and growing municipal demand are draining aquifers and reservoirs; and the proliferation of pump jacks and fracking wells is erasing prairie habitat.
There are things we can all do; but solutions will include personal choices to conserve energy and create backyard habitat, local action to create community climate action plans, and state-based work to increase roof-top solar and energy efficiency. Audubon has designated Important Bird Areas that deserve special attention because of their importance as migration stopovers and breeding grounds along our flyways. Point-No-Point County Park in Hansville is an official IBA because of its unique blend of wetlands, nutrient churning tidal eddies and its value as a jumping off point for birds crossing the open waters of the Admiralty Straits.
Kitsap Audubon is partnering with various community groups and organizations to help protect the habitat that remains and the birds we all love. Kitsap Audubon has been deeply involved in Kitsap Forest and Bay coalition efforts to preserve nearly 7,000 acres of shoreline and forest surrounding Port Gamble Bay. Kitsap Audubon has also raised money for the Bainbridge Land Trust Hilltop Project and efforts to keep Gazzam Lake wild. These are samples of the chapter’s efforts to engage the wider community. But it’s going to take all of us to address the very real and urgent concerns raised by the recent Audubon Report.
