Friday, March 17, 2006

Loose Feathers #32

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

  • The Driftwood Wildlife Association is asking birders to report their first sightings of chimney swifts this spring. Go to ChimneySwifts.org to report your sightings. Chimney Swifts are a species of concern because changes in the design of chimneys and other building features have deprived them of traditional nesting sites.
  • Laura Erickson has a review of high-end spotting scopes.
  • The NY Historical Society has connected several anonymous volumes of bird paintings with a Reformation-era painter and naturalist. Unfortunately neither the Washington Post nor the Historical Society show any examples of his work.
  • A federal appeals court has ruled that EPA changes that allow power plants and factories to make changes without updating pollution controls violate the Clean Air Act.
  • Bush's nominee for Secretary of the Interior, Dirk Kempthorne, appears to have a similar record to Gale Norton. His record shows a dedication to opening national forests to various forms of resource extraction.
  • The Senate's budget bill - passed yesterday - included a provision for drilling in ANWR. It still requires approval from the Senate energy committee.
Local birding
  • The Snowy Owl is still being seen at Dulles Airport as of yesterday. If you live near DC and still have not seen it, get out and visit before it is too late.
Blogging
  • Site Meter has a new feature for tracking outbound links.
  • Cerado.com has a quiz to see how many people can figure out the difference between Star Wars characters and the names of web 2.0 sites. I scored a 25, mainly by guessing.