Timing is everythingīeverly is a former reporter, editor, national food columnist and book author. They are authors of a new book ‘A Wing and a Prayer’ examining the race to save many vanishing species of birds.

Retailers reported that sales of bird feeders and food nearly doubled as bluebirds and red-winged blackbirds went from background noise to a source of socially distant entertainment.Īnders and Beverly Gyllenhaal search for birds at Anderson Point Park on Thursday, Apin Raleigh, N.C.

In lockdown, people’s worlds shrank to the square footage of their homes plus whatever outdoor acreage to which they had access. The story of the report was what newspaper people used to call a “talker.” It generated a lot of conversations and had more people paying more attention to the house finches and great crested flycatchers in their back yards. The losses were widespread across types and species of birds, and the suspected causes included pesticides, loss of habitat, climate change, shifts in food supplies, unsportsmanlike outdoor cats. They chalked up their NOB’s to bad weather, bad timing, bad luck.īut the 3 Billion Bird report suggested something much more serious. It’s the birdwatching equivalent of getting skunked. Sometimes spending up to six months a year on the road in pursuit of sightings, Anders said, “We had a lot of NOB’s.

In 2018, they had launched a website, “ Flying Lessons,” where they touched on avian news, shared photos and videos and blogged about what was to be learned from watching red-shouldered hawks, cedar waxwings, summer tanagers or any of 900 other species that have been recorded on this continent. In recent years, the couple had bought a travel trailer and begun visiting places historically known as hangouts for non-migratory species or as popular stopovers for birds making twice-annual treks. The Gyllenhaals, like tens of thousands of other birders, had seen the effects of the decline, though no one had so accurately and shockingly quantified it. Bird health generally is seen as a marker for the health of whole ecosystems if birds aren’t thriving, the system is in trouble.

1 billion americans book