I’m writing to thank you for recognizing that the northward migration of our birds in the past few decades means more than losing local flora and fauna. The implications are indeed far greater than they appear at first glance.

The 2009 Audubon Society report on birds and climate change indicates that nearly 60 percent of the 305 bird species found in North America in wintertime have shifted their locales over the past four decades. They’ve moved an average of 35 miles north since 1969 and in some cases, they’ve moved hundreds of miles.

When it comes to global warming, birds are like canaries in a coal mine, showing us that temperature increases are shaping our ecology in a drastic and potentially dangerous ways. Over a century of the citizen science in the Christmas bird count provides evidence that the climate change is having serious ramifications. Now it is up to citizens and scientists to create a new way forward to ensure a sustainable future for ourselves and for the birds.

Carol Bertelson

Albert Lea