1970 is used as the starting point because that was when the Breeding Bird Survey started taking data. Data on bird populations simply didn't exist before that, with the exception of the Christmas Bird Count. The BBS was started partly in response to the perceived decline in birds already occurring.
Kevin Kevin McGowan From: bounce-123961049-3493...@list.cornell.edu <bounce-123961049-3493...@list.cornell.edu> On Behalf Of Alicia Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2019 1:54 PM To: CAYUGABIRDS-L <cayugabird...@list.cornell.edu> Subject: Re: [cayugabirds-l] US population trends; time frame for bird study Decrease in children per family: In the 1970's, there were an average of 2.12 children per family, while from 2009-2018, the number had decreased to an average of 1.88 and is holding steady there - a decrease of over 11% . (For more info, check here<https://www.statista.com/statistics/718084/average-number-of-own-children-per-family/>.) The percentage of single child families doubled from 11% of all families in 1975 to 22% in 2016. At this point, the birth rate alone is considerably less than replacement rate and even with the increase in longevity, the only reason the US population size is increasing is immigration. (That is a factual, not a political, statement - for the record, I am not against immigration!) When did the decline in bird population begin? The effect of human population size and, particularly, habitat destruction and the changing chemistry of our soil, air, and water, surely have taken a huge toll on birds. But in at least aspect of the new bird population study is misleading. Its baseline is 1970, about 50 years ago, but speaking as someone who was in high school then and who learned from birders who were alive at the beginning of the 20th century, it is clear that at least spring migration already was had suffered a significant decline by 1970. One very reliable birder I got to know was born in 1905, and he assured me that by 1980, spring migration was a shadow of what it had been in the 1920s & 30s in Tompkins County. He wondered if migratory routes had changed but said for whatever reason, there were only a fraction of the warblers, vireos, orioles, and tanagers moving through the area in the spring that there were 50 yrs before. (This was a man who spent pretty much every waking hour of his 93 years being outdoors birding, fishing, or when he was younger hunting.) Other people who had been around birding in the 1930s before told me much the same. If you check accounts in Birds By Bent you'll find supporting evidence for this in reports made at the time. For example, a few years ago I had 25 Palm Warblers in one group. eBird was skeptical, but later when I checked Birds by Bent, there were several accounts of palm warbler flocks, including one from Wm Brewster (co-founder of the American Ornithologists' Union), writing from Massachusetts in 1906, who noted casually that in spring "one may often meet up with fifteen or twenty in a single flock or forty or fifty in the course of a morning walk." I don't think any of us thinks of a walk that yields 50 Palm Warbler as a migration event that 'often' happens now. So as we think about this, we need to be careful not to assume that 1970 was the beginning of the end, just because few of us around today remember even more plentiful birds before that. There is plenty of evidence that this started much, much earlier, and as we look for causes and solutions, that needs to be kept in mind. Alicia On 9/26/2019 11:55 AM, Deb Grantham wrote: You're right about population - nobody wants to talk about that anymore. I do the same with composting but also compost ALL of my food waste. I know the crows and raccoons and possums and so on help with that, but that's ok with me. Deb From: Donna Lee Scott <d...@cornell.edu><mailto:d...@cornell.edu> Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2019 11:54 AM To: Deb Grantham <d...@cornell.edu><mailto:d...@cornell.edu>; CAYUGABIRDS-L <cayugabird...@list.cornell.edu><mailto:cayugabird...@list.cornell.edu> Subject: RE: [cayugabirds-l] How to help birds Compost all you can; I save out most used paper towels and tissues and mix with my big compost pile leaves, grass, veg garbage etc. Having a few small woodsy plots here, I also make "wildlife hut" piles with most my downed branches and tree/bush trimmings, rather than send it to the dump. Town of Lansing on their ONE brush pickup service per year at least makes mulch out of all they pick up. But the Other Big Elephant in the room is HUMAN OVERPOPULATION, which obviously is helping to cause a lot of climate change , habitat loss, rain forest destruction, etc. A very complex issue for which probably only massive education world-wide will help. Look at results of China's previous efforts at "one child per couple"... Back in the 1970s there was the Zero Population Growth book and publicity. Haven't heard much about this lately. Donna Scott Lansing From: bounce-123960446-15001...@list.cornell.edu<mailto:bounce-123960446-15001...@list.cornell.edu> [mailto:bounce-123960446-15001...@list.cornell.edu] On Behalf Of Deb Grantham Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2019 11:42 AM To: CAYUGABIRDS-L <cayugabird...@list.cornell.edu<mailto:cayugabird...@list.cornell.edu>> Subject: RE: [cayugabirds-l] How to help birds For reducing impacts of ag, don't waste food. A very high percentage of food in the US is wasted - spoils or people won't eat the produce with spots, etc. Deb From: bounce-123958613-83565...@list.cornell.edu<mailto:bounce-123958613-83565...@list.cornell.edu> <bounce-123958613-83565...@list.cornell.edu<mailto:bounce-123958613-83565...@list.cornell.edu>> On Behalf Of Dave Nutter Sent: Wednesday, September 25, 2019 10:36 PM To: CAYUGABIRDS-L <cayugabird...@list.cornell.edu<mailto:cayugabird...@list.cornell.edu>> Subject: [cayugabirds-l] How to help birds The Lab of O recently released a report saying the world's wild bird population has dropped an alarming 29% in the last five decades. I also received a list from the Lab of O about how we as individuals can help reduce the harm to birds. Suggestions include preventing window strikes, stopping cat predation, stopping pesticide use, planting native species instead of lawns, reducing plastic use and recycling plastic, and not consuming sun-grown coffee. I would add bananas and sugar to that list of tropical plantations which destroy habitat, and suggest generally eating locally. The list also talks about advocating policies in each of those areas. Anyway, the suggestions are good, and I support them. Yet I think there's an elephant in the room. An issue which was not mentioned is destroying coastal habitats, mountain habitats, and arctic habitats including sea ice. It is causing desertification. It is producing larger wildfires, including where plants and animals are not fire-adapted. It is destroying coral reefs which are nurseries for fish. It has already moved the ranges of fish and other aquatic bird food by hundreds of miles or affected their populations. It creates increasingly powerful storms which can devastate islands, as we have seen in Puerto Rico and the Bahamas. The problem is climate change, and it is predicted to move the growing conditions for plants much faster than the plants can move and regrow, thus destroying habitats for birds at range-wide scales. And that's before considering all the habitat destruction caused by humans trying to adapt, move, fight over resources, and create new farm land to replace the areas which are no longer usable. So, I think fighting climate change should be on that list for helping birds (as well as helping many other creatures, including humans). And that means, among many other things, reducing our carbon footprints to limit the future damage. What is the carbon footprint of birding, and what would reducing it mean? Not flying? Using an electric car charged with renewable energy or at least a high mpg car? (And even keeping renewable energy use at a moderate level, because photovoltaic & wind "farms" also displace habitat and harm birds.) Limiting miles driven? Car-pooling to go birding? Using discretion when deciding what trips to take? How many gallons of gasoline should be burned by people to see a little lost bird? Putting a limit on the area in which to chase rarities. Staying in a county or a basin rather than trying to personally cover a state, country, continent, or planet? Forego chasing rarities which have been seen before? More positively, how about concentrating birding on a small area and getting to know its birds well: places you can walk or bike to, places that are already along your daily commute. And for myself, I have greatly enjoyed the photographs of birds and descriptions of the birds' activities which other people have contributed to their eBird reports. Rather than envy, I can share their joy without feeling I need to jump in a car to see (or miss) that bird myself. Anyway, these are some issues I have been struggling with, and I wonder if other birders are also thinking about these things. Thanks. - - Dave Nutter -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds> BirdingOnThe.Net<http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! -- -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds> BirdingOnThe.Net<http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! -- -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds> BirdingOnThe.Net<http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! -- -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds> BirdingOnThe.Net<http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! -- -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
