Snowy Egret at Nest / Photo by David Hall (USFWS)Bird news and links
The Northern Spotted Owl has a new potential threat in the form of a blood-borne avian malaria parasite. Northern and California Spotted Owl subspecies showed an unusually high number of blood parasites in a study comparing infection rates in nine owl species.- Wind farms can avoid harming wildlife if thorough site studies are conducted before turbines are built.
- The deaths of hundreds of nesting terns on two barges in California resulted in fines but not jail time for the company and employees that cleared the nests.
- Black-crowned Night Herons that nest in wetlands near Chicago's Lake Calumet still show traces of DDT, even though the chemical has been banned in the U.S. for forty years. The area was formerly heavily industrialized and needs mitigation.
Scotland has had an influx of migratory birds that overshot their Mediterranean destinations. Unusual sightings included a bee eater, hoopoes, a night heron, and golden orioles.- The National Park Service transferred six month-old peregrines from urban bridges to West Virginia's New River Gorge, which provides more suitable habitat. Two came from a nest on the Walt Whitman Bridge. You can watch the hacking site on a webcam.
- Peregrines are also nesting in Jersey City.
- In Florida, least terns are nesting in record numbers around Lovers Key State Park.
- Surf fishermen continue to protest against restrictions that bar them from driving off-road vehicles through piping plover nesting territory. Some have defaced signs or ripped out fence posts.
- Also in North Carolina, some crank thinks that a barred owl was responsible for a domestic murder, rather the man who was convicted of it.
- Birdwoman: Ten ways to help nesting birds
- Drinking Bird: It's not easy being Green, less so Black-throated
- Northwest Nature Nut: Baby Juncos
- BES Group: Feather damage in birds
- Birder's Library: Birdwatcher: The Life of Roger Tory Peterson
- A new federal report on climate change predicts major effects over the next 25-50 years. Among other things, rainfall will drop about 20% in the West and increase by 20% in the Midwest and East. Agricultural zones will also shift, with faster plant growth offset by heat-related crop failures. The report was issued four years late, only after a court order forced the release. The report is available at climatescience.gov.
- Next week, the Senate will consider the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act. Read more about it here and here. Ask your senators to support it here.
- A large amount of methane released from unstable ice sheets ended the last "snowball Earth" ice age 635 million years ago. Methane also caused major warming 55 million years ago. This is a major concern now because Arctic permafrost currently holds frozen methane deposits, which would be released if the permafrost melts.
- Invasive species often do better where they are introduced than in their home territories because they lack the parasites that keep them in check. For example, insects eat 15% of a butterfly bush's leaves in its native China, but only 0.5% on introduced bushes in Germany.
- Cellulosic ethanol could contribute to deforestation if tropical rainforests are harvested or cleared to raise feedstock.
- China's ban on plastic bags goes into effect on June 1.
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