[NatureNS] Birds face longer migrations due to climate change

From: "Paul S. Boyer" <psboyer@eastlink.ca>
To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 2009 19:01:40 -0400
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This is a good example of GW hysteria by the mainstream media, in this =20=

case by the highly unreliable Reuters.  The article is pure =20
speculation.  It also ignores the fact that the Earth was warmer just =20=

7,000 years ago, and colder during the Little Ice Age, and warblers =20
seem to have made it through those changes just fine.

The principle problem for birds migrating between Europe and Africa, =20
like those described in the article, is loss of habitat (particularly =20=

in Africa).  It is also generally true that the bigger the bird, the =20
more likely it is to be pestered by humans: chased, shot, eaten, &c.

The conversion of temperature into an equivalent surface distance =20
needed for migration assumes that temperature is the main control of =20
bird migration, which almost everyone who has studied the subject =20
knows is just not true.  Food is the main motive for migration, and =20
the food needs vary according to species.  Birds will put up with a =20
wide range of temperatures, if the food is available.  That is the =20
reason so many feeder-species have moved north, and now stay longer in =20=

the winter: if the food is adequate, they will stay.  It is one of the =20=

amazing things we observe: tiny little creatures, out in the cold, =20
with nothing but a thin layer of puffed-out feathers to separate them =20=

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