For the second year in a row, Shirley Murtha has won an award in the Connecticut Press Club’s 2024 annual competition. Her article, How the loss of insect populations affects bird life, placed second in the Green/Environmental category.
Murtha relates, “As a biology teacher for many years, I did my best to teach my students to not just squish every insect they encountered, but to attempt to find out what it is and escort it out if it’s in the house and please just let it be if it is already outside. The only things exempt from my rule are mosquitoes and ants in the kitchen!”
Decline in migratory bird populations, Murtha explains, is unfortunately connected to an accompanying decrease in insect species. Insects are one of the most important food sources for birds—especially critical for migratory birds that binge eat before taking off on their yearly trips south.
Murtha does her part to boost insect and bird life on her property. “I have lots of flowers: bee balm, trumpet vine, peonies, anemones, black-eyed Susans, lilies, hydrangeas, iris, forsythia, Clethra and Daphne. My oaks, hemlocks, maples, birches, tulip tree and wolf-eyes dogwood are my allies—Mother Nature’s benevolent sources of food and shelter.”
Murtha’s winning article concludes with a plea to property owners to do what they can in support of birds and insects. “Hopefully it goes without saying that the use of herbicides and pesticides is totally detrimental to the health of insects and have their effects far up the food chain.”
How the loss of insect populations affects bird life can be read by visiting this link.