Bay-breasted Warbler
Credit: Jeff Nadler

It’s May, which means it’s the perfect time for many of us birders to get outside and spot some of the beautiful migrants who fly through our communities on their way North for the Summer. From waterfowl to warblers, many wonderful opportunities for great birding present themselves this time of year.

Like myself, many of you may have observed both shifting ranges and declining numbers among various species in recent decades. You might recall my previous post about the Audubon report that found many species of bird wintering further North as a result of climate change. This coincided with the State of the Birds report, which found birds across the spectrum declining in numbers.

While both of these reports were sobering, there is something you can do to help! Next week several bird and environmental organizations, including the Boreal Songbird Initiative, are releasing a petition called Save our Boreal Birds, which will be sent to top Canadian politicians. You don’t have to be Canadian to sign.

If you’ve already signed the petition, you can upload your email contacts and select multiple people to invite with one click. It literally takes seconds!

The petition urges Canadian leaders to do their part in ensuring healthy bird populations by protecting vital bird habitat in the Boreal Forest. It also emphasizes that development be undertaken in a sustainable way as to not damage vital breeding grounds in the Boreal. We’re only about 1,000 signatures short of our goal – please help us get the last 1,000 so we can prove to officials that birders have a voice in the way our land is treated!

Mountain River in Boreal
Credit: Irene Owsley

This entry was posted on Monday, May 4th, 2009 at 9:09 pm and is filed under Bird Conservation, Blogroll, Events, Migration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.