Climate experts predict that New Hampshire and much of the Northeast may see dramatic changes in bird life due to global warming.
A rise in sea level and warming ocean temperatures make migratory shorebirds particularly vulnerable.
Biologists are just now trying to access bird populations on New Hampshire’s seacoast to determine how climate change could affect them in the future.
New Hampshire Public Radio’s Amy Quinton reports.
(1180 1:50 nat sound, then under)
It’s low tide here on Henry’s pool in Hampton.
On this windy and hot day, small brown birds including plovers, sandpipers and dowagers forage on mud flats around pools of brackish water.
(more sound)
This is where fresh and salt water meet – part of five thousand acres of the largest tidal marsh in the state – the Hampton Seabrook Marsh and Estuary.
New Hampshire Audubon Biologist Pete McKinley says its home to a healthy bird population.
1167 2:30 for at least one species, we could have half the daily population in here foraging at the far end of the low tide, (this drains a little later than the main harbor) and the birds are playing a game of hopscotch across the system looking for recently exposed moist flats for foraging
McKinley has found 23 species of birds so far in this estuary – the majority of them migrating.
They breed in the arctic, and winter in central and south America.
But if global warming causes the sea level to rise, McKinley fears these birds would have nowhere to forage.
1154 :15 It would be just an outright loss of salt marsh habitat, couple of feet will not only cover permanently some of the marsh we see in front of us, it would shorten the time frame daily that these mudflats are available, maybe even completely cover them throughout the tidal cycle.
Changing weather patterns could also bring more storms and flooding.
(nat sound water)
Swollen rivers and nearby creeks might change the contour of the land.
McKinley says a subtle difference in elevation can make all the difference in the lives of two resident shorebirds that breed here, the willet and the salt marsh sparrow.
He says he’s seen close to 30 breeding pairs of willets in this marsh, a bird that was nearly extinct last century.
1168 From the standpoint of the breeding willet and the breeding sparrow a little bit of elevation can mean the difference between the nest getting flooded out or remaining dry enough to successfully hatch a nest-full of young.
But it’s not just the problem of habitat loss.
Climate change will affect the bird’s food supply.
McKinley says the brackish water contains a dense population of marine worms, small shrimp and other arthropods that the birds depend on.
Even if a rise in sea level doesn’t wipe out places for shorebirds to forage, a rise in ocean temperature could wipe out their prey.
1158 1:40 “This small soft bodied animal which doesn’t have a lot of physiological buffering capacity against temperatures could likely suffer and that in turn would lead to problems with everything in turn depending on that population of prey.â€
The change in temperature could also change the timing of when large amounts of food might be available, something that’s important for a migrating bird.
(nat sound)
McKinley says thousands of birds depend on these brackish areas in this estuary to survive.
But there is very little of this land left.
Condos and beach houses with perfectly manicured lawns sit just a few feet away.
Biologists say continued development coupled with climate change could squeeze out the shorebirds completely.
For NHPR news, I’m Amy Quinton.
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