Posts
News and links about birds, birding, and the environment
- The Boreal Songbird Initiative reports on the impact of consumer choices on bird populations. In particular, glossy mail-order catalogues are produced by clear-cutting millions of acres of Canada's boreal forest and petroleum mining threatens bird habitat around Alberta's tar sands.
- The Feather Atlas is a new collection of high-quality images of tail and wing feathers from many bird species.
The British Trust for Ornithology is coordinating a four-year survey of Britain's bird population. The survey is likely to enlist the aid of local birding clubs and about 50,000 bird watchers to create an atlas of 250 species. The results will guide conservation work over the next 20 years.- The New Yorker profiles a bird banding operation in the Bronx. The banders check migrants to measure how well they take on fat in an urban park.
- The Delaware chapter of the Nature Conservancy has acquired a 118-acre property along Long Neck Road in Sussex County. The property, which includes beach along the Indian River, wetlands, and farmland, will be managed by the Conservancy as a bird preserve.
- Diclofenac, a veterinary drug that has killed thousands of vultures in southern Asia, is now on sale for use by cattle farmers in Africa.
- The Army Corps of Engineers is killing 40 cormorants along the Columbia River to test if cormorants are hindering the restoration of steelhead and salmon. The Corps plans to check their stomach contents for what kinds of fish they eat.
- This summer, least terns and piping plovers nested on a habitat restoration area in the Platte River for the first time in a decade.
- A fifteen-year-old boy is doing a big year by bicycle to see birds without wasting fossil fuel. (Follow the trip at the Bird Year Blog.)
- Officials investigating the shooting of two rare hen harriers on one of the Queen's estates have questioned Prince Harry, who was there with a hunting party at the time.
- Also in the bird shooting department, two men in Texas shot pelicans out of boredom, a roller pigeon enthusiast pleaded guilty to killing Cooper's and red-tailed hawks, and Cheney went hunting.
- A 22-foot floating aluminum tree sculpture has been installed in New York's East River. The sculptor hopes that the tree will serve as both artwork and bird house.
- The Post profiles the use of "Crittercams," small cameras attached to animals that record the animals' activities.
- MOS has posted the dates for Christmas Bird Counts during the 2007-2008 season in Maryland and Washington, DC.
- bootstrap analysis: problematic charisma 3: canada geese
- Sibley: Green-breasted Mangos in North America
- Tails of Birding: White-throated Sparrows Are Practicing Their Songs
- The Nightjar: Big Year or Big Waste of Time?
- The Feather and the Flower: Here We Are Now, Entertain Us
- Fat Finch: Halloween and Barn Owls
- OC Warbler: Birds in Bondage
- Friday Ark #163
- I and the Bird #61
- BirdLife News: October 2007
- Circus of the Spineless #26
- Festival of the Trees #17 (part 2)
- The Boneyard #8
- Birds in the News #103
