An Essay by Brad Griffin

For five decades, Ned and I and our dogs met and made our way to Cape Vincent and the hospitality of Tom and Pat. Tom guided us and others through the woodcock and grouse territories of that north country with many memorable adventures. But, last fall and now, we have not made this expedition because of scarcity of birds.

Larry and I have hunted central New York for three decades. This year our treks with my setter have yielded no flushes. Last year, my setter caught a grouse in the brush. We haven’t shot a grouse in three years and I have given up carrying the shotgun in favor of a walking stick. In my experience, there has not been a significant woodcock migration in four years; this year, nil.

Bob called from Wyoming to tell that he is again afield after western/blue grouse. That state has shortened the season and reduced bag limits.

Neil has written from Indiana, enclosing one of his recent columns on birds. He notes the scarcity of birds seen while driving to our farm north of Ithaca. His observations are those of an experienced birder, a Cornelian who followed up on Dr. Arthur Allens work on red winged black birds.

The observations on terrestrial bird populations by the North American Bird Conservation Initiative, U.S. Committee 2014 are alarming. Henslows sparrow, and sedge wren populations had dropped to a fractional remnant by 2005. Substantial population losses are evident for Grasshopper, Vesper and Savannah sparrows; Upland sandpiper, Meadowlark, Harrier, Horned lark and Red winged blackbird. Bobolink numbers have dropped, but not as precipitously as the other species noted.

During the last decade, NYS DEC has noted substantial declines in the reported legal harvest of wild turkeys. Wild pheasants are memories. Arboreal thrushes are becoming rare.

Observations and data would suggest that terrestrial birds are the most severely affected. Why? I would assert that many invertebrates have been diminished in synchrony with these avians. Grasshoppers, crickets, locust’s snails, and Monarch butterflies are diminished while honeybee colony collapses occur.

Is it not reasonable to consider a common denominator for these phenomena? If some atmospheric fallout diminishes invertebrates, it eliminates the most important source of feed for young terrestrial birds. Having once been trained and employed as a biologist, I should better understand. I am embarrassed to join in speculative recitations about predation, pesticides, pollution, habitat loss, global warming, etc.

Predators, including cats, have been around for a long time. Pesticide usage is limited by regulation today than fifty years ago. Would climate change be more politically correct if it was global cooling, or erratic weather patterns? Would its effects be more acceptable?

In a nation with no coherent national energy policy, debates over airborne exhaust follow party lines rather than evidence. My Gun Dog magazine had a forecast of pheasant and other game bird hunting around the states. Despite their optimistic approach, it seemed a thin prospect. New York was not even included. The November 2014 issue pictured a hunter with a tiny Gambrels quail in the palm of his hand, his reward for driving to Arizona to hunt.

So here I am at age 82, retired and every day is Saturday. I have some great friends left to hunt with or I can totter off alone. Doc, the dog, is my English Setter, and I have a couple of nice shotguns, but there are so few birds, I am reluctant to call it hunting. O. Henry could have made a story of this!

More importantly, we can care and have curiosity about why the birds, bees, butterflies, grasshoppers, and snails are diminished. Can we heed the old metaphor of the canary in the mine shaft?