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Wilson's Warbler / Photo by Donna Dewhurst (USFWS)News and links about birds, birding, and the environment
- The California Fish and Game Commission is considering whether to ban lead ammunition. A proposed ban is intended to protect endangered California condors from lead poisoning. Problems with lead poisoning from spent ammunition has hampered attempts to rebuild the wild condor population. A commissioner who favored the ban has resigned under pressure from Gov. Schwarzenegger and the National Rifle Association.
- In Wyoming, bullet fragments have caused lead poisoning in other scavengers, like ravens.
Boa Nova Important Bird Area in Brazil is the target of a three-year conservation project that will develop sustainable land use policies and preventing habitat loss. The diverse habitats within Boa Nova are home to many bird species, including the slender antbird (pictured at right).- Fire ants in Texas are killing many songbird nestlings before they fledge. Affected species include white-eyed and black-capped vireos.
A record number of whooping crane chicks hatched at Woods Buffalo National Park in Canada this June. However, only 40 of the 85 chicks from 65 nests survived the summer. The low survival rate is blamed on especially dry conditions within the reserve.- Wildfires in Idaho and Nevada burned through sage grouse mating grounds.
- A conservation program in Washington state has led to the local recovery of the snowy plover, which was listed as federally threatened in 1993. A side effect of the program, which included extensive habitat restoration, was that two other endangered organisms, the pink sandverbana (a plant) and the streaked-horned lark (a bird subspecies), thrived in the protected restoration area.
- "Team Clapper Rail" in San Diego is trying to increase the locally threatened clapper rail population through a captive breeding release program.
The reduction of agricultural set-asides in Europe may threaten the populations of farmland birds, like the skylark (pictured right). The European Commission has reduced the set-asides so that there will be more land for food and biofuel production.- Bird Island near St. Petersburg, Florida, has become a nature preserve. The small island is home to six species of special conservation concern.
- There has been more in the news about meat consumption as a factor in climate change. Livestock farming produces about one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.
- The National Research Council reports that budget cuts will hamper the ability of scientists to monitor climate change and research its effects.
- 10,000 Birds: Spruce Budworms and the Warblers that Eat Them
- Birdfreak: Flickr + Birding = A Cool Way to View Birds in Action
- Stokes: Hawk-watching Tips
- beginning to bird: Memories of birds I've known
- Creek Running North: For example, consider the Cooper's hawk...
