Climate Central: It's a mild and sunny summer day on the tidal salt marshes at Barn Island Wildlife Management Area, which sits across Little Narragansett bay from Stonington, Conn. Walking through a wide, dry stretch of marsh, Chris Elphick, a conservation biologist at the University of Connecticut, focuses a spotting scope on a group of little brown birds hidden among the thigh-high grasses.
Elphick identifies the rare saltmarsh sparrow by the yellow shading on its face and the crisp dark streaks on its breast....