Many birds that were rare in New Hampshire decades ago are showing up regularly, and some say global warming is the reason why.
Welcome to this week’s edition of Something Wild. I’m Rosemary Conroy for the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests.
My friend Mary is quite enthralled with cardinals. It’s not only how handsome the bright red males are or how dedicated they are to their less colorful mates, but because they are a relatively new phenomenon for her. When Mary first moved into her New Hampshire home more than 60 years ago, cardinals were rare.
But now these pretty birds are found throughout the Granite State from Brookline to Berlin. The reason has been attributed to the increase in bird-feeders but can also be linked to our increasingly milder winters.
That’s right: global climate change has been affecting the types of birds we see around here for some time. Do you have tufted titmice at your feeders? Three decades ago, the New Hampshire Audubon chapter would have been putting our rare bird alerts for those bright-eyed little beauties. Now? They’re as common as chickadees.
This past fall we hosted some Carolina wrens in our backyard — one of the newest species to be moving northward. Supposedly intolerant of cold winters, these feisty little birds have increasingly been showing up in Christmas bird counts for the past ten years in northern New England. That says a lot more about the trends in our weather than any pundit can.
Climate change also seems to the reason why Baltimore Orioles have shifted their range so far north. In fact, scientists are predicting that in another 20 years they may no longer be found in Baltimore! Of course, no one can say what the impact will be on resident birds when all these newcomers start showing up.
What will my house wrens — who normally nest here, for example — do when their Carolina cousins show up? Will they move out and up? Or will they just move over?
Something Wild is a joint production of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, New Hampshire Audubon, and New Hampshire Public Radio.
For Something Wild, I’m Rosemary Conroy.
