Saturday, September 25, 2021

Birds Thrived Where Humans Feared to Tread during the Pandemic, Scientists Say

 Neuman, Scott. “Birds Thrived Where Humans Feared to Tread during the Pandemic, Scientists Say.” NPR, NPR, 22 Sept. 2021, https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/09/22/1039593706/birds-thrived-in-urban-settings-during-pandemic-lockdowns.

I read the article, “Birds Thrived Where Humans Feared To Tread During the Pandemic, Scientists Say.” The article explained how during the pandemic, people stayed indoors, pausing commuting to work or getting on airplanes, making it possible for birds to fly into cities and other new urban areas, according to some new information from Science Advances. Michael Schrimpf(a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Manitoba’s Natural Resources Institute) and his colleagues used Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s online database (eBird) to find bird sightings reports by citizen scientists. They noticed that the reports stated that there were sightings of about 4.3 million individual birds(82 bird species) in America and Canada when many cities were in full coronavirus lockdown, from March to May of 2020. Schrimpf tells NPR, “Everything from birds like hawks and eagles all the way down to small songbirds and even hummingbirds.”(Neuman)Even if there are billions fewer birds, 80% of bird species studied showed changes in their numbers in this time period. These results don’t show that bird numbers are increasing, but as Schrimpf explained, “the birds that people were seeing were basically birds that would have been in other places instead showing up in places that are more regularly trafficked by people.”(Neuman)The author ends the article by explaining how people who prefer to work from home may be helping the birds. 

This article has a great impact on society because it can make people think about not just how quarantine affects us- but how it affects wildlife. It can help people realize that working from home may not have been the most convenient, but it helped the birds.

I really enjoyed this article, because it gave me a new perspective about quarantine, and how it affects wildlife. Despite this, there were a few things I would change to improve this article. For example, I wish the author had been more clear from the start of the article that bird numbers were not increasing, they were just living in areas they normally wouldn’t live in. While I was reading the article, I didn’t realize this until midway through, and this is a very important point that I think should have been emphasized from the start. Also I wish the author could have gotten more in depth with explaining how people staying indoors helped the birds. Is it because humans make it harder for birds to find places to nest? Or is it because airplanes are disrupting bird’s flight? Overall, I enjoyed this article, it was very informative, and I hope to look into more articles about how quarantine affects wildlife.


7 comments:

  1. Konstantinos Koloutsos
    09/26/21
    Mr. Ippolito
    Current events

    Neuman, Scott. “Birds Thrived Where Humans Feared to Tread during the Pandemic, Scientists Say.” NPR, NPR, 22 Sept. 2021, www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/09/22/1039593706/birds-thrived-in-urban-settings-during-pandemic-lockdowns.

    https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/09/22/1039593706/birds-thrived-in-urban-settings-during-pandemic-lockdowns


    I really enjoyed reading Sophia’s review on “Birds Thrived Where Humans Feared to Tread during the Pandemic, Scientists Say.” by Scott Neuman, it was a very interesting review. One thing that Sophia did very well was critiquing the article, Sophia had multiple sentences on how the article itself could have been improved. She was very precise with her words so it was easy for the reader to understand what parts of the original article were lacking in information. Another thing that Sophia did very well was giving us information about the topic straight from the article. She gave the reader statistics and quotes from scientists to help the reader further understand the topic. Lastly Sophia gets right to the point and from the very beginning of her review she tells us what the article was about. She is very detailed and it makes it easier for the reader to follow along as she is giving facts and statistics on the topic.
    Although this review was very well written there are some areas of the review that could have been better. For example Sophia gave a lot of information like facts and data from the article but she didn’t explain the information that much. Explaining the information would help the reader follow along. Also Sophia could’ve done a better job in her second paragraph about how her topic affects society. Sophia only brushed over how people think about how covid isn’t just affecting us. The second paragraph would’ve been so much better if she elaborated more on how her topic is really affecting society.
    I chose to read Sophia’s review on this article because covid is still affecting us years later, we still need to be aware of how it’s affecting the things around us. Usually when it comes to covid it’s always about people, and I really like this review because it talked about how covid doesn’t just affect us. It’s crazy how a pandemic that is only contagious to humans has affected wildlife like birds so much. Due to all the lockdowns, the flight patterns of birds are changing. It’s fascinating how something like a pandemic can affect something like wildlife and birds' flight patterns.

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  2. Neuman, Scott. “Birds Thrived Where Humans Feared to Tread during the Pandemic, Scientists Say.” NPR, NPR, 22 Sept. 2021, https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/09/22/1039593706/birds-thrived-in-urban-settings-during-pandemic-lockdowns.
    https://bhscorechem.blogspot.com/2021/09/birds-thrived-where-humans-feared-to.html.
    Birds Thrived Where Humans Feared to Tread during the Pandemic, Scientists Say

    The Review of the article, “Birds Thrived Where Humans Feared to Tread during the Pandemic, Scientists Say” really brought out the pros and cons of the article. I like how there was a lot of evidence from the article that supported what was actually being said in the article. It really gave me a better understanding of what was actually happening to birds during the pandemic. For example, the review said, “They noticed that the reports stated that there were sightings of about 4.3 million individual birds(82 bird species) in America and Canada when many cities were in full coronavirus lockdown, from March to May of 2020.” This shows how the review took data directly from the article and helped the reader understand how many birds came out during the pandemic. Another thing that I thought that the review did well was that it told the reader how everything in the article impacted society. It told us how the article has significance to our lives and gave us a different perspective about wildlife during quarantine. Also, the review pointed out some important things that the article could improve on. It states how the article didn’t tell the reader until halfway through that the population of birds wasn't actually increasing.
    Even though the review was overall well written and explained, there were some things that could be improved. For example, the review could’ve given a more in depth summary. When I was reading the review, I couldn’t really understand what the birds were doing until later in the review. This should be explained right from the start. The reader should be able to know what the article was about and be able to understand what is being said in the article. Another flaw that I noticed was that there could have been more impact on the reader about how it affects us humans. It just left off with, “I really enjoyed this article, because it gave me a new perspective about quarantine, and how it affects wildlife.” I would personally like to know more about “how it affects wildlife.”
    Overall, I really enjoyed reading about this article because as said in the review, it makes you think about what animals are doing when we are in quarantine and working from home. There were some good and bad things in the review but overall it was well written and explained. This review looked really interesting because birds were thriving while we were all cooped up in our houses and I'm glad I chose to comment on it.

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  3. Victoria Fang
    9/27/2021
    Mr. Ippolito
    Current Event 3

    Neuman, Scott. “Birds Thrived Where Humans Feared to Tread during the Pandemic, Scientists Say.” NPR, NPR, 22 Sept. 2021, https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/09/22/1039593706/birds-thrived-in-urban-settings-during-pandemic-lockdowns.
    https://bhscorechem.blogspot.com/2021/09/birds-thrived-where-humans-feared-to.html.
    Birds Thrived Where Humans Feared to Tread during the Pandemic, Scientists Say

    I really enjoyed reading Sophia’s review of the article “Birds Thrived Where Humans Feared to Tread during the Pandemic, Scientists Say.” Something I liked about this review is that it included data/evidence from the original article to support her summary that is very precise. I also really liked how she clearly separated the parts of the particle in the summary and presented it in her own understanding. Lastly, I liked how she gave examples to explain her opinions on the article, it makes her opinion stand out more because it is supported.
    Although this review was very well-written, there are some things that Sophia could improve upon. I thought that the summary might have included a little too many quotes. A summary should be more in the author’s words instead of the article’s words. I also thought that the impact on society paragraph could have been a little longer and more thorough. Sophia explained how working at home could benefit the birds. She could have expanded on that a little more.
    I thought that the fact that physical environments do not impact bird activities as much as human activities, stated in the article, was really cool and interesting because I have always thought that the environments, like cities or forests, impacted bird activities but I guess some birds are really afraid of humans.

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  4. B Clark

    Neuman, Scott. “Birds Thrived Where Humans Feared to Tread during the Pandemic, Scientists Say.” NPR, NPR, 22 Sept. 2021, https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/09/22/1039593706/birds-thrived-in-urban-settings-during-pandemic-lockdowns.

    https://bhscorechem.blogspot.com/2021/09/birds-thrived-where-humans-feared-to.html#comment-form

    This review of the article “Birds Thrived Where Humans Feared to Tread during the Pandemic, Scientists Say” is very well written. Sophia did a great job discussing what important information was included in the article along with going into further detail on how that relates to society's perspective. After going over this, Sophia included direct quotes from the piece to back up her argument, which helped the reader follow along with her train of thought. Something that really helps the audience understand what information is being displayed is the fact that she used numbers and data from the article and not only described them, but Sophia also explained how the numbers had confused her at first. This is something that helped me when reading this because I too, had thought the data included meant there was an increase of birds, not that more had come into uncommon areas.
    While this review is very easy to follow, there’s still room for improvement. Something that would’ve helped understand the writing even more would be for Sophia to explain the quotes she included and what they really mean. This would help the reader understand how the information relates to her thoughts of the article. While I had claimed that Sophia succeeded by explaining how the numbers in the writing had confused her, she could’ve stated this earlier in her writing instead of putting this piece at the end. This would make it so we as the audience would understand what was really happening to the bird population instead of having a not so clear idea that isn’t changed until the very end.
    Overall, Sophia did an outstanding job writing this review. It helped me understand that while we were thinking about how hard quarantine was for us, we weren’t thinking about how well the environment was doing. The virus didn’t just affect the human species, it affected the whole world. Not only was I able to realize this, but I got a greater understanding of exactly what occurred over the period of quarantine.

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  5. Victoria McEnroe
    9/29/21
    Mr. Ippolito
    Current Event 3

    In the review of the article “Birds Thrived Where Humans Feared To Tread During the Pandemic, Scientists Say,” the three most well-done aspects were the writer’s connection to humanity, the criticism and the use of statistics. I found the connection to humanity really interesting because I have never thought about how other species (besides humans) were affected by the pandemic. After seeing the effect quarantine has had on birds, I am intrigued to learn more about the effect on other animals and the ecosystem. I also think that the criticism section was very well written. Unlike many other reviews I have read, this reviewer was very exact in what additional information she would have liked in the article, as she provided two questions she wanted the answers to. Finally, the use of data helped me to conceptualize the variety of birds spotted.
    One area I have feedback on is the writer's connection to humanity. I am interested in this article and in investigating why a greater variety of birds are being seen in certain areas. Due to my personal interest, I would have liked even more writing on this connection between the actions of humans and our environment and what it could teach us. Even if the reviewer did not know exactly the answer to this, they could have made inferences or come up with ideas. Another area that could be improved upon is the section of the final paragraph; what the writer liked about the review. Most of the conclusion was about further questions and lacked much positive feedback. To someone reading this review, the article does not necessarily seem worthwhile, but when I read it I found that it spread a lot of interesting ideas and opened my range of awareness.
    This article will change my perception of my actions. After reading about how quarantining led to a large shift in the bird-world, I have learned about the importance of my personal actions and the actions of humans all together. Moving forward, I will work harder to ensure that what I do can only influence the environment in positive ways. This includes small things like recycling more and turning off the lights when I am not home. Everything one does has an effect on another lifeform, so each gesture counts.

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  6. Isabel Haller
    October 4th, 2021
    Mr. Ippolito
    Current Event 3

    Sophia’s review of the article, “Birds Thrived Where Humans Feared to Tread during the Pandemic, Scientists Say” was thoroughly enjoyable and informative. Firstly, the review did a fantastic job of describing the effect the article had on Sophia. This was made apparent in her last paragraph, where she writes, “I really enjoyed this article, because it gave me a new perspective about quarantine, and how it affects wildlife.” (Ikiri) The fact that the reviewer spoke positively about how the article impacted her encourages readers to read the piece themselves, which accomplishes the goal of most article reviews. Sophia also does a great job introducing the people that she uses a quote from, a testimony to their authority. This makes the review more credible and therefore more compelling to readers. Lastly, I enjoyed Sophia’s paragraph about how she would critique the article. She elaborated on her ideas very well, and described where she had to ponder the article a little in order to understand what the author was trying to say, which was a helpful tool for others reading the article.
    Though her article was phenomenal, there were a couple things that I would critique about Sophia’s writing. First off, she could have been more detailed in her paragraph about how this article changed her outlook. Sophia wasn’t very specific, so it would have added a certain coherence that makes writing easier to read. Also, her summary of the article could have had some more content of the article as a whole, as opposed to quotes with little explanation.
    All in all, the review of “Birds Thrived Where Humans Feared to Tread during the Pandemic, Scientists Say” was a nice, short read, that got straight to the point and discussed in detail how the author of the original article could improve the passage. It was a very interesting and educational read.

    Neuman, Scott. “Birds Thrived Where Humans Feared to Tread during the Pandemic, Scientists Say.” NPR, NPR, 22 Sept. 2021, https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/09/22/1039593706/birds-thrived-in-urban-settings-during-pandemic-lockdowns.

    https://bhscorechem.blogspot.com/2021/09/birds-thrived-where-humans-feared-to.html#comment-form

    ReplyDelete
  7. Quinn McCarthy
    Ippolito: Period C Odd
    10/18/21

    “Current Event Comment: Birds Thrived Where Humans Feared to Tread during the Pandemic, Scientists Say” as reviewed by Sophia Ikiri

    Article:

    Neuman, Scott. “Birds Thrived Where Humans Feared to Tread during the Pandemic, Scientists Say.” NPR, NPR, 22 Sept. 2021, https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/09/22/1039593706/birds-thrived-in-urban-settings-during-pandemic-lockdowns

    Link to review:
    https://bhscorechem.blogspot.com/2021/09/birds-thrived-where-humans-feared-to.html


    Comment



    Sophia Ikiri’s review of “Birds Thrived Where Humans Feared To Tread During The Pandemic, Scientists Say” by Scott Neuman is presented well. Three specific examples of ways in which she excelled are the brief summarization of the article’s main points, the use of statistical data to better explain the effects of Coronavirus on birds, and the criticism of the article. Sophia did a good job in making sure her summary was brief and got right to the point. She used statistical data to help the reader understand what the significance of the findings were. Additionally, she did a good job in making suggestions for the article.
    Although Sophia’s review was good as a whole, I feel as though there are a couple places that I would suggest changes in. I feel as though she could have made a stronger argument for how this article will impact society. In addition, she could have used a more professional tone when writing all three paragraphs..
    Sophia Ikiri’s review of “Birds Thrived Where Humans Feared To Tread During The Pandemic, Scientists Say” as reported by Scott Neuman was quite interesting, and mentioned current events that I had previously been unaware of. I had heard over quarantine that wildlife had been doing well because of the decrease in human activity, but hadn’t thought about how birds could see a benefit from the virus. This article put into perspective the magnitude of human impact on the environment.

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