Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Loose Feathers #15

A collection of news and links on birds, birding, and the environment.
  • During the years of the Bush administration, states have been forced to take the lead on environmental reforms while administration blocks national legislation. One state that is taking up the challenge is Minnesota, where Governor Tim Pawlenty has proposed legislation to clean waterways and a referendum to dedicate a fixed percentage of the state revenue for natural resources.
  • A Christmas Bird Count in Green Bay, Wisconsin, is reporting its second-highest species count in the last thirteen years.
  • A couple in Wisconsin reports that a male ruffed grouse has a strange fascination with their ATV, to the point of following it around.
  • Blog Arundel reports on violations of land-use rules on the Chesapeake waterfront near Annapolis.
  • Birders continue to visit the Conowingo Dam, despite restricted access. (Thanks, Philip.) Dams and reservoirs are, in fact, great places for birdwatching, especially for finding interesting gulls and waterbirds.
  • Congressman Richard Pombo, who wanted to sell Roosevelt Island to developers, can expect opposition in both the Republican primary and the general election. With a good challenger, there is hope that this term will be Pombo's last.
Non-bird stuff
  • Thanks to Modulator I learned about a Firefox extension called Performancing, which is a blogging application. I like the user interface overall, and I like the fact that I can write a long post without Blogger losing it before it's published. The downside is that it appears not to have an easy way to upload images, so I still need to do this through the Blogger editor. It is very useful for writing these linkage posts.