Loose Feathers #18

News and links on birds, birding, and the environment.

• Birds Korea is running a fundraiser in an effort to save the Saemangeum flats, a vital staging area for migratory shorebirds in Asia, from a reclamation project. Many endangered and threatened species pass through this area on migration, including some like the spoon-billed sandpiper that occasionally show up in North America. For details see Charlie's Bird Blog.
• A rufous hummingbird was banded in Virginia this week. Pictures are available of the hummingbird and parts of the banding process. Another rufous hummingbird has been visiting a feeder in Fayetteville, North Carolina. For further information about wintering hummingbirds, see Trochilids.com.
• A cheating girlfriend was betrayed by her boyfriend's African grey parrot, who kept repeating her lover's name whenever she answered the phone. As always, watch what you say around parrots.
• Birdchick has reviews of some new birding devices that take advantage of new technology. One is a PDA-based field guide developed by National Geographic. Sharon gives a positive review, with the caveat: My favorite bug being that when you clicked on the range map for the
  ivory-billed woodpecker, the program would crash and reboot--this made
  me chuckle for days. Shhhhh... better not tell Tom Nelson.
  

Blogging

• Four other bird bloggers have set up year lists on their blogs. Charlie Moores's list for 2006 has already passed my life list, in just two weeks! Mike has set up a new page to track his year list online as well. Meanwhile, Katie dedicated a new humbly-named blog to her year list, while Tom McKinney has a blog for his "2006 birding journal."