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Canvasback on Nest / Photo by Donna Dewhurst (USFWS)News about birds and birding
Farmers are taking land out of the federal Conservation Reserve Program to take advantage of higher grain prices. The program paid farmers to leave some land fallow to provide wildlife habitat. The prairie pothole region is especially crucial for breeding waterfowl; agricultural land is also important for a host of declining species. There will likely be political pressure to cut back the reserve program to lower food prices. (See also: Shifting Subsidies and Conservation; ANWR of the heartland?)- Australia's shorebird population is crashing; migratory shorebirds have declined 73% from 1983 to 2006, and resident shorebirds have declined 81% over the same period. The major cause appears to be habitat destruction - along their migration routes and in winter and breeding areas.
- The National Parks Conservation Association argues that the federal government needs to allocate more money to buy private land within national park boundaries. Otherwise logging could take place at Mount Rainier and developments could be built at Gettysburg and Valley Forge. National park boundaries enclose about 1.8 million acres of private land nationwide.
- Climate change is a suspected cause for European's cuckoo's decline; while host species have arrived earlier, cuckoos continue to migrate at the same time, leaving them with less time to parasitize nests.
- A paper from BirdLife argues that conservation efforts slow the rate of extinction, but that the work needs to be done on a wider scale.
A woodpecker with a giant bill has been coming to a feeder in North Yorkshire (U.K.). Its bill is twice the normal length for a greater spotted woodpecker.- Twenty cedar waxwings that got stuck in pigeon repellent in Richmond have been released back to the wild.
- Eastern Long Island has its own controversy over protecting piping plovers from feral cats.
- The two eaglets in the nest at Manasquan Reservoir (NJ) have been banded.
Gotham Gazette has a story on the restoration of natural habitats in the Arthur Kill since a massive oil spill in 1990. Habitat restoration included mitigation of the closed Fresh Kills landfill, 2,200 acres of which will become a public park.- Postal workers in Wisconsin are being attacked by wild turkeys.
- Drinking Bird: Unidentified Piping Objects
- Birdchick: Early Spring Sparrows
- 10,000 Birds: Central Park in Early April
- Snail's Eye View: Dusky woodswallows dabble in small-scale crime
- Seattle may tax both plastic and paper grocery bags.
- The CDC reported this week that climate change will bring increased health risks within the United States.
- Bay & Environment: Wetlands to be destroyed for highway (Maryland)
- Chinese citizens are more likely to see climate change as a major issue than Americans are.
- Green frogs living in suburban areas are more likely to develop intersex abnormalities than green frogs in rural areas.
- Al Gore thinks that the U.S. will sign a new climate change treaty at Copenhagen in 2009.
