Enough is enough! Stop slaughtering all the birds!

In a striking trend that spans North America’s key ecosystem regions - grassland, shrubland, forest, wetland, and urban - almost a third of 654 bird species native to North America are in “statistically significant decline,” according to a first-ever “State of the Birds” report unveiled last month by the Audubon Society. (csmonitor.com)

Too many people, their overuse and development of land, and non-native species are among the main culprits for this decline.

Time for a quiz, readers, to test our knowledge of the natural world:

“What mammal is responsible for annually killing 38 million songbirds, four million cottontail rabbits and 100 million small mammals in Wisconsin?

(A) Skunk
(B) Fox
(C) Raccoon
(D) Pine Marten
(E) All of the above
(F) None of the above

If you chose (F), you are correct.

Can you name the mammal? If you say “cat”, step to the head of the class.

A study on predation by cats found that old Tabby is one of the major predators of wildlife in Wisconsin and throughout the United States…” (bird-dog-news.com)

These poems give a bit of a lift to our friendly little birds:

“A Minor Bird” by Robert Frost

I have wished a bird would fly away,
And not sing by my house all day;

Have clapped my hands at him from the door
When it seemed as if I could bear no more.

The fault must partly have been in me.
The bird was not to blame for his key.

And of course there must be something wrong
In wanting to silence any song.

“Let the Little Birds Sing” by Edna St.Vincent Millay

Let the little birds sing;
Let the little lambs play;
Spring is here; and so ’tis spring; —
But not in the old way!

I recall a place
Where a plum-tree grew;
There you lifted up your face,
And blossoms covered you.

If the little birds sing,
And the little lambs play,
Spring is here; and so ’tis spring —
But not in the old way!