The New York Times article from last week was a good introduction to the earthworm issue. It’s no longer available for free from the Times archive, but the text was preserved here.

I have to read up on the non-native earthworms – I don’t have a clue what that’s about.

Laura – Wood thrushes are in decline throughout their range, apparently due in part to the increasing fragmentation of interior forest habitat and proliferation of edge-dwelling nest predators (cowbirds, crows, raccoons, skunks, feral cats, etc.). Another factor may be acid depostion. A recent study at Cornell found that woods with very acidic soils (as on most wooded areas in PA) are iffy for wood thrush breeding success, because the females need a lot of calcium in their diets in order to be able to make good eggshells. They usually get this by feeding on snails, but the land snail populations are heavily impacted by acid deposition (and also, I would imagine, by the radical diminution of forest litter in areas where the forests ahve been invaded by non-native earthworms). This is probably true for some other forest-interior songbirds, too; wood thrushes just happened to be the focus of that study.

patry – Thanks for reading.

What do you think accounts for fewer wood thrushes?

Now in real life I’m not this stupid, but I grew up near the forest and always had nightmares that a lion would jump out of the forest, prance (?) up to the back porch, and try to claw and scratch its way into the house. (Presumably, to eat me.) So this somewhat over exaggerated question stems from childhood nightmares, and gets asks about quite a few harmless forest creatures.