Filed under: News, Climate Change, Plants and WildlifeFrench birds just can't keep up with this crazy weather! That's because climate change is more than just earlier rain or super hot summers. The trees, flowers, insects and everything else in the biosystem changes when the weather changes, which in turn impacts the food chain, nesting and even breeding patterns. Birds and animals are becoming desynchronized with seasonal changes. In France they were able to leverage detailed bird watching data to study the effect of climate change on the migratory pattern of birds. The study included 99% of the wild birds in France, which is pretty definitive. It showed that the birds adjusted their normal geographic patterns almost 60 miles to the north between 1989 and 2006. That's a pretty big distance when you consider the size of most birds. We're not talking about Pterodactyls here! They're little finches and wrens! And maybe a couple of ducks. But still, small!Impressive as that 60 miles may be, it wasn't enough. The temperatures in that same time shifted almost 170 miles north, three times as far. So the birds did their best, but when they got to the "bird rest area" there was disappointment and not enough bugs to eat. In the long run, no bugs equal no birds, and that's a sad world. One more reason to change some lightbulbs and do whatever you can to reduce your carbon footprint. Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments


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