Tens of thousands fewer migratory shore birds are stopping this year in New Brunswick according to the Nature Conservancy of Canada.
Spokesperson Andrew Holland says this week is usually the height of the migration with 100,000 to 120,000 birds daily.
However, they’ve been counting an average of 70,000 birds this year at Johnson’s Mills.
“And that’s certainly below average and a concern to us, we don’t know why but it appears they are arriving late, and we’re seeing less variety of species as well,” says Holland. “We try to examine the populations daily, and we’re just seeing there’s less of all bird species there.”
He says bird populations in Canada have been on a relatively steady decline since the 1970s.
“We’ve seen a 60% reduction in shore birds since 1973, and there’s a variety of factors in that, it could be coastal erosion, [or] impacts of climate change,” says Holland.
He says the birds stop here on the way from the Arctic to South America to build up their bodyweight to survive the flight.
