Birds
"My wife has bird-feeders and it's very clear to her that the birds aren't there. The birds are not there." - Chris Maas
"I have friends who have bird feeders but no birds. I figured, well, there's a[n empty] bird feeder, but like the bat box, you go, well, that's just sad." - Edward Hodgdon
"The variety of birds at my feeder is way less than it used to be, even the number of birds are less and I've lived in New England a long, long time." - Linda Mosley
"Here we were trekking through the Costa Rican rainforest, expecting to be chewed alive by insects and see many, many birds. It wasn't so. We were in a wildlife preserve for 7 hours, never saw an insect (other than a pair of giant centipedes mating...interesting...), and saw only a handful of birds. Part of the day-long excursion included a river tour where I managed to catch a very blurry photo of, literally, the only three birds we saw: a couple of egrets and a small heron. The other birds we saw in Honduras were scarlet macaws, but the sanctuary put them in cages at night and have a special shelter to move them to when the increasingly violent storms hit..." - Melanie Hodgdon
"You never saw cardinals 50 years ago. You never saw cardinals. [Now] they are all over the plac. You hear them everywhere, a very lovely call. But they are not very rare." - Melanie Hodgdon
"Every time I look out my window at my bird feeder, climate change is really -- or other environmental factors such as loss of habitat and stuff -- I mean, the variety of birds at my feeder is way less than it used to be, even the number of birds are less." - Linda Mosley
"My family has a farm and we grow a lot of sunflowers for the gold finches, and there's.... Their gold finches aren't there." - Louise Ringle
"This is my hummingbird feeder and the beans that have... Friends of ours, every year they planted these scarlet runner beans and they grow and have beautiful red flowers that the hummers love and it coincides with when they're here, and it works. And then by the time winter comes, the pods have dried enough so you get the seeds. This year the hummers left before they even flowered, and I have no seeds yet." - Jean Greenough
About CHANGE
CHANGE is a climate change research project directed by Dr. Kati Corlew and is dedicated to reaching a better understanding of peoples' perceptions of climate change. Our research was conducted using a qualitative research method called PhotoVoice. PhotoVoice, is a method “by which people can identify, represent, and enhance their community”. (Wang & Burris, 1997, p. 369) Our participants met in focus groups to discuss the research topics, and then went out into their communities to take photographs according to their conceptualization, values, and priorities regarding the topic. They then selected photographs to present and discuss in a final focus group (Gleason & Corlew, 2019). By placing participants’ photos, stories, and conceptualizations at the center of the study, we hope to expand the exploratory nature of this research to include themes outside of current climate change conceptualizations. For more information, please visit our Main Page.