Friday, December 30, 2016

Loose Feathers #576

Ring-necked Pheasant / Photo by Tom Koerner/USFWS
Birds and birding news
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Environment and biodiversity
  • President Obama this week named two new national monuments, Bears Ears National Monument in Utah and Gold Butte National Monument in Nevada. Coverage of the monuments has emphasized conservative opposition, but the same politicians complaining about overreach use parks and monuments to market their states. There may be a few more monument designations on the way.
  • The Obama administration's record on endangered species has been mixed; while many species have been delisted (a mark of successful conservation programs) and some backlog has been cleared, new rules have made it harder to nominate species for protection.
  • The National Whistleblower Center is launching a website to help people report wildlife crime, which often goes unreported or underinvestigated.
  • The deaths of four bears in Pennsylvania were probably caused by eating toxic berries from an English Yew, a nonnative ornamental shrub.

Friday, December 23, 2016

Loose Feathers #575

Barred Owl / Photo by Andy French/USFWS
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Friday, December 16, 2016

Loose Feathers #574

Wisdom, the Laysan Albatross / Photo credit: Kristina McOmber/Kupu Conservation Leadership Program & USFWS
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Friday, December 09, 2016

Loose Feathers #573

Pied-billed Grebes / Photo by Jim Hudgins/USFWS
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Friday, December 02, 2016

Loose Feathers #572

American White Pelican / Photo by Krishna Prasad Kotti / USFWS
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Friday, November 25, 2016

Loose Feathers #571

Snow Bunting / Photo by Alex Galt/USFWS
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Friday, November 18, 2016

Loose Feathers #570

Red Winged Blackbirds/ Photo by Tom Koerner/USFWS
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Friday, November 11, 2016

Loose Feathers #569

Mallard / Photo by  Tom Koerner/USFWS
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Friday, November 04, 2016

Loose Feathers #568

Wilson's Snipe / Photo by Jim Hudgins/USFWS
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Friday, October 28, 2016

Loose Feathers #567

Pied-billed Grebe / Photo by Lloyd Bush/USFWS
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Friday, October 21, 2016

Loose Feathers #566

Northern Harrier / Photo by Tom Koerner/USFWS
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Friday, October 14, 2016

Loose Feathers #565

Dark-eyed Junco / Photo by Bill Thompson/USFWS
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Environment and biodiversity
  • This year had the ninth-warmest September across the Lower-48 states; the same area has not had a cooler-than-average September since 2005.
  • Even as US presidential debates have avoided the subject of climate change, the world permanently passed the 400ppm threshold for atmospheric carbon dioxide.
  • Expanding fracking is incompatible with reducing fossil fuel emissions, even if political leaders talk about it as a "bridge fuel."
  • Fracking threatens native wildflowers in Western Australia because of habitat disturbance and climate change.
  • A recent study found that jumping spiders can hear sounds such as predators or potential prey at a distance. 
  • Storms producing flooding like the NYC area saw during Hurricane Sandy could become more frequent as the climate warms and sea levels rise. 
  • Bees in the Arctic are understudied but could provide information on how climate change is affecting insect populations.
  • Indigenous communities have played a vital role in environmental activism.

Friday, October 07, 2016

Loose Feathers #564

Northern Waterthrush / Photo by Jessica Bolser/USFWS
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Friday, September 30, 2016

Loose Feathers #563

Western Meadowlark / Photo by Dan Duchscherer/USFWS
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Friday, September 23, 2016

Loose Feathers #562

Rufous Hummingbird / Photo by Tom Koerner/USFWS
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Friday, September 16, 2016

Loose Feathers #561

Female Broad-tailed Hummingbird feeding on Agastache rupestris / Photo by Ryan Moehring / USFWS
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