My husband and I have been a bit melancholy lately as we look out our window and question what has happened to the birds that used to fly around our back yard, play in the birdbath and eat the crumbs left for them. 

While reading the May issue of Vanity Fair, University of Texas ecologist Camille Parmesan feels that although humans haven’t been seriously affected by global warming “the organisms on our planet have been drastically changing on an evolutionary scale.” 

She continues to discuss the ”synchronic relationships between predators and prey, as well as those between insects and plants” and how these are falling apart with detrimental consequences. 

Our spring is beginning earlier and climatic changes are pushing the species toward the pole not to mention polar and high-alpine species becoming extinct. Parmesan feels ”while species have in some cases adapted to these environmental changes, there is little evidence that they will be able to adapt fast enough to survive. 

As I ponder the quail and other birds that used to dance around our yard I’m wondering if global warming has hit Northern California or if there is a stray cat doing some damage?