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Bird Migration
07/02/2002
Listen in RealAudio 
Can you imagine Maryland without the Baltimore Orioles? I mean, the real Orioles not
the baseball team!
Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton for The Weather Notebook's weekly segment on Global Climate
Change.
A new study by the National Wildlife Federation and the American Bird Conservancy
suggests that the warming trends across the globe may be influencing when birds
migrate and how far they migrate in warmer months.
PG: These birds really are the canaries in the coal mine of what global climate change
can mean to the broader ecological system.
That's Patricia Glick, manager for the Global Climate Change and Wildlife Program for
the Wildlife Federation.
PG: There is increasing evidence that Global Warming is affecting bird communities
around the world and here in the United States. For example, we're starting to see
birds arriving earlier in the spring months, as well as shifting their ranges further to the
north. And these changes are associated with a general average increase in the
surface temperature both regionally and across the globe.
Glick says a change in migration patterns could upset the balance of eco-systems
maintained by the orange and black oriole and other high profile songbirds.
PG: They eat insects that can be pests to crops as well as damage forests. They're
important pollinators for some plants, and they're important to people. More than 63
million people do bird watch here in the United States and spending millions of dollars
in contributing to local economies.
One other major factor in the shift in migration could be urban sprawl which eliminates
the natural habitat of the Oriole.
The Weather Notebook is a production of the Mount Washington Observatory. Our
series on Global Climate Change is supported by the New England Science Center
Collaborative and the Roy A. Hunt Foundation. Doug Sanborn contributed to this
report.
Today's Links
More Information
http://www.nwf.org/climate/statemigratorybirds.html
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