Posted by steve siegel on January 01, 1970 at 00:00:00
This is a good example of a well-meant article being so poorly written that the lay audience (which is and should be the main target) probably comes away with a feeling of "who cares". Instead of explaining that spring is up to two weeks earlier in many places, the author couches it in days. The casual reader, not well-versed in math, sees that spring is half a day early, or a day early, or whatever. So what. He then names a bunch of birds that mean nothing to most people, and adds that, although most suffer from a too early spring, one of them is suffering because spring is later than expected in its area. Open the door for the doubters. In one paragraph he even gives the inattentive reader the impression that birds eat oak leaves. He didn't mean that, but his phrasing leaves you with that thought. It could have been better written. Believe me, the problem is real and super important. I spent yesterday in a pristine ponderosa pine forest. It was totally silent. Not a flycatcher, not a woodpecker, not even a Steller's Jay to be heard for miles. Only a few ravens in the air...like an apocalypse.