Audubon’s Climate Watch
Help Track the Effects of Climate Change—and Help the Birds You Love
What’s even better than watching birds? Knowing you’ve done something meaningful to protect them. Join your fellow Amos Butler members and local community science advocates in working to collect data about climate change and its impacts on our local bird populations and distribution. National Audubon’s ‘Survival by Degrees’ study shows that two-thirds (64%) (389 out of 604) of North American bird species are at risk of extinction from climate change. The good news is that our science also shows that if we take action now we can help improve the changes for 76% of species at risk.
Audubon’s Climate Watch program is a new tool in the toolbox for land managers and Audubon Scientists to learn how birds are using the landscape and adjusting their ranges based on climate suitability. For example, the Mountain Bluebird is vulnerable because in the vast majority of its summer range, the climate conditions that this bird needs—temperature, amount of rainfall, and other environmental factors—will shift northward and eastward. This bird may be able to move into new areas over time, or it may struggle to adapt.
To test predictions made in Audubon’s ‘Survival by Degrees’ study, Audubon has developed Climate Watch, which aims to document species’ responses to climate change and test Audubon’s climate models by having volunteers in the field look for birds where Audubon’s climate models predict they will be in the 2020s. When you participate in Audubon’s newest community science project, you’ll give Audubon scientists vital data on how birds are faring now—which guides our most effective conservation work to help them adapt. You will be joining hundreds of other science driven individuals working together to collect large amounts of data to be analyzed to help inform the target of our conservation work to protect birds.
Join Amos Butler Audubon Society as we participate in Audubon’s community science program. If you can identify eastern bluebirds, white or red-breasted nuthatches, American goldfinches, or eastern towhees, by sight and/or sound, or are eager to learn, put your bird knowledge to use and help us conduct surveys to see how these species are already responding to climate change in our area. Even if you are a beginning birder, you can help! Audubon’s Climate Watch has local coordinator volunteers available to help teach beginners how to identify birds that we will be surveying for, how to correctly survey based on Audubon’s study protocol, and how to reserve a “survey square” and “survey points” for your surveys.
The next season of Climate Watch is January 15 – February 15, 2024. Join for a winter survey event at Strawtown Koteewi Park on Saturday, January 27th at 9am. We will meet at the Taylor Center of Natural History (12308 Strawtown Ave, Noblesville, 46060) and divide up survey locations around the park. Be sure to check out the Climate Watch website to learn more about this exciting program. Contact Chandler Bryant, Amos Butler Audubon Society Board Member & Local Climate Watch Coordinator, at (765)210-9618 or at chandlersbryant@gmail.com, to RSVP for the survey event or for more information about Climate Watch.
You can also register by clicking HERE
Grab your binoculars—Birds need your help!
-Chandler Bryant
Amos Butler Audubon Society Board Member
Source: National Audubon Society’s Climate Watch webpage: https://www.audubon.org/news/coordinator-resources-climate-watch