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Black Phoebe / Photo by Gary Kramer (USFWS)Bird and birding news
EBird requests that birders seek and report migrating Rusty Blackbirds during the week of April 1-7. The data will help answer what habitats Rusty Blackbirds need for spring migration. The species has suffered a severe population crash - as much as 85%-98% over four decades.- NASA wants to build a launchpad for commercial spacecraft on one of two 200-acre sites. The first includes parts of Merritt Island NWR and Cape Canaveral National Seashore; the second includes parts of Merritt Island NWR and other valuable coastal scrub habitat outside of it.
- The FAA and FCC are working on a plan to reduce bird strikes at communications towers, after prompting from a court order.
- Cornell and Audubon have published the highlights from the 2008 Great Backyard Bird Count. Volunteers set a new record for participation by submitting 85,725 checklists. The count recorded 635 species, including 12 new species: Masked Duck, Arctic Loon, Scarlet Ibis, Northern Jacana, Black-tailed Gull, Ivory Gull, Great Skua, Yellow-naped Parrot, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Fork-tailed Flycatcher, Akohekohe, and Chestnut Munia.
- The results from the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch are also published; garden birds have declined by 20% over the past four years.
British scientists suspect that noise pollution affects when and how urban songbirds sing and may explain some species' declines.- Though harvest of horseshoe crabs is illegal in New Jersey, local fishermen may still buy crabs for bait in other states. Florida is looking for volunteers to track horseshoe crabs on the state's beaches.
- Invasive black spiny-tailed iguanas and Nile monitor lizards threaten burrowing owls and other native wildlife in Sarasota County (FL).
- A proposed cormorant cull near Point Pelee may be delayed because of problems with the public comment period. Public comments on the draft management plan were due by April 7, even though the draft plan has not been released to the public.
The theme of this year's International Migratory Bird Day is "Tundra to Tropics," reflecting the need to protect breeding, migration, and wintering habitats across two continents. Breeding habitat in the boreal forest is particularly threatened by new logging and mining initiatives.- This is an excellent time to look for American woodcocks, which perform courtship displays at dusk.
- Here are some recommendations for providing nesting material for birds.
- A photographer in Tennessee took photos of an American crow killing an American robin.
- This month, the Cape May-Lewes Ferry has been swarmed by northern gannets and finback whales.
- An airport in Connecticut tried to discourage osprey by removing their nesting platform, but the pair built a new nest on a utility pole across the street from the old one.
- bootstrap analysis: malnourished waterfowl dying in michigan-ontario
- 10,000 Birds: The plover with no proper name
- Sibley: Audubon's mysteries: Carbonated Swamp-Warbler
- Wildbird: San Francisco might help migrating birds inadvertently
- Birdchaser: Blast from the Past: When Wrens Attack
- It's a bird thing: Bird Song in the Spring - A Metaphor for Healing
- Two Birders to Go: Da Do Wren Wren
- Shakesville: A moral story for the weekend
- Governor Sebelius of Kansas vetoed a bill that would create two new coal-fired power plants.
- Plastics in the ocean concentrate toxins, which they release when eaten by a marine organism.
- A federal appeals board ordered the EPA to set a timeline for reducing nitrogen outflow from the Blue Plains Sewage Plant in DC and include the timeline in the plant's permit. Nitrogen pollution causes algae blooms and dead zones in the Chesapeake Bay.
- Gristmill: The case for organic builds
- EasyEcoLiving: What Foods Need to be Organic?
- IBRRC: Timeline of Cosco Busan spill: First 90 minutes
