Birds are wonderful in many ways including their ability to act as "canaries in a coalmine" when we measure the complications of climate change. Mass Audubon’s previous research indicates 30% of our breeding birds are already declining and are in need of conservation action. Climate change will increase stress on many of those species, as well as additional species, and will do so in both predicted and unpredicted ways. Our climate change projections estimate that 43% of the breeding species we evaluated are Highly Vulnerable to climate change by the year 2050.

Warmer winters cause shifts in the way that marine food webs work, which will cascade through the environment and affect fish populations, and in turn, fish-eating birds. Increasing temperatures can affect the timing of important events, such as leaf and insect emergence. Those changes in phenology can cause declines in long-distance migrating birds as their arrival on their breeding grounds misses the periods of peak food abundance.

Conservationists are hearing the clarion call of bird species though and have made great progress in habitat restoration efforts. We will highlight some of those efforts and celebrate progress as stewards to the remarkable resilient world of birds.

WHAT IS CLIMATE PREPAREDNESS WEEK?

Since 2018, CREW (Communities Responding to Extreme Weather) has hosted Climate Preparedness Week, marking a week of learning, service, and actions to better prepare our communities for extreme weather events and the effects of climate change. With a diverse variety of community-oriented groups coming together to host events and raise awareness of extreme weather threats, we provide the resources and space to think about how climate change impacts everyone, and how it disadvantages some communities more than others. Climate Prep Week 2023 is September 24th-30th. The Duxbury Free Library is proud to be a Climate Resilience Hub.