Posts
White-crowned Sparrow / Photo by Gary Kramer (USFWS)News and links about birds and birding
- Most non-breeding adult Magenta Petrels (Pterodroma magentae) are male, making it difficult for the species to reproduce in sufficient numbers to avoid extinction.
- Molecular analysis has confirmed that Tyrannosaurus rex was more closely related to modern birds than to modern reptiles.
- A wildlife rehabilitator found a sharp-shinned hawk with a claw from the last songbird it ate sticking from its chest. Here is an image of the bird with the claw sticking out (not for the squeamish).
- Wind farm planners are starting to get the message about protecting birds. One town in Canada moved a turbine site in response to bird surveys, and Scotland canceled a wind farm in the Outer Hebrides because it would affect rare and endangered birds at the site.
The golden eagle and hen harrier are close to extinction in Britain due to persecution by game keepers.- Here is a recommendation for touring Blackwater NWR by bicycle.
- A 234-acre tract of contaminated land in the middle of Liberty State Park will become an urban wildlife refuge with marine and freshwater wetlands, grasslands, and a hardwood forest.
- Petty's Island (NJ) was saved from development by the weak real estate market. The landowner now wants to give it to the state for free and pay for cleanup.
- Delaware's candidates for governor discussed a potential horseshoe crab harvest moratorium, among other issues, at a recent debate.
- British birders are rushing to see a rare black lark, only the third of its species to appear in Britain.
- If you know of any bird nests, monitor them and enter data to NestWatch, a new CLO/Smithsonian project.
- BES Group: Black-naped Tern: Defense vomiting
- Outside My Window: Close Encounters
- Sparrowworks: The whimsical WOW-factor in birding.
- Snail's Tales: How to create animate matter from seemingly lifeless dust
- 10,000 Birds: Sparrows Coming and Going
Atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane both rose in 2007. Current conservation efforts have been more than offset by growing industrialization in Asia and thawing Arctic peatlands, which release frozen methane. Decomposition of frozen methane hydrate deposits have been linked to rapid warming and a mass extinction event 55 million years ago.- An outbreak of mountain pine beetles in British Columbia is causing the boreal forest to turn from a carbon sink into a carbon source. Recent outbreaks have been getting worse due to climate change. (See also The Voltage Gate's commentary)
- New research shows that your food's carbon footprint is determined more by what you eat and how it was produced than by how far the food traveled.
- South Florida, one of the most vulnerable places in North America, has convened a task force to plan for sea level rise.
- Injecting sulfur particles into the atmosphere to slow warming could damage the ozone layer.
- Frogs and Ravens: Thoreau's Laundry
- CommuterPageBlog: Every Day is Earth Day When You Take Transit
