December 29, 2007 at 06:41:59

Where have all the birds gone?

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“The good news is that people can make a difference,” Butcher said. Several species granted ESA status “now show stabilizing or even increasing populations.” Pashley concurred, telling the reporters, “The Watchlist sounds a real warning but fortunately, when we put our minds and laws to it, as we did with the bald eagle, whooping crane, and California condor, we can make a difference.” All these birds are making a slow but steady recovery, although only the bald eagle is a candidate for removal from the ESA list.

This is the second grim report on the status of birds in 2007. Last June, Audubon released a report titled “Twenty Common Birds in Decline” showing that “some of America’s most familiar and beloved birds have taken a nosedive over the past 40 years, with some down as much as 80 percent. Overall, the 20 species’ populations have plummeted at least 54 percent since 1967.”

The list includes the northern bobwhite, evening grosbeak, common tern, eastern meadowlark, rufous hummingbird, whippoorwill, and little blue heron.

Bird watchers organize

This reporter asked the participants in the news conference if bird conservationists are attempting to make bird conservation an issue in the 2008 elections, to demand that presidential and congressional candidates spell out how they will save wild birds. Flicker replied that volunteer activists at the Audubon Society’s network of 500 local chapters “are showing up at town hall meetings to raise these issues all the way up to the federal level.” The society is sending organizers “around the country to mobilize people to create a sense of urgency on these issues.”

Greg Butcher said the number of bird watchers and bird lovers across the nation is between 40-60 million, more even than the membership of the AARP. “The bird conservation alliance has to get people who are about birds engaged in the political process,” he added.

Tim Wheeler (greenerpastures21212 at yahoo.com) is the national political correspondent for the People’s Weekly World/Nuestro Mundo, www.pww.org.

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