Posts
Snowy Owl on a Fence Post / USFWS PhotoBird and birding news
- A bird species's clutch size depends on its life history and environment. For example, cavity nesters and species in temperate environments have larger clutches; longer-lived species tend to lay fewer eggs.
- A satellite study of snowy owls found that some spend their winter on sea ice. What they are doing at sea is not entirely clear; one possibility is hunting sea birds like eiders. Other owls migrated long distances from their breeding grounds.
- Breeding birds in the Great Plains are losing habitat as farmers clear fragile land to plant more commodity crops to take advantage of high prices and federal subsidies.
- Predation from mice appears to be a major cause of decline for the Tristan Albatross and Gough Bunting, both endemic to Gough Island in the South Atlantic. The albatrosses also suffer from longline fishing.
- A study in the Seattle area is tracking the changes in bird life as plots of forest are cleared to make way for suburbs.
- Birdscapes: Making Landfill Methane Burners Safe for Raptors
- Coffee and Conservation: Know your coffee birds: Black-throated Blue Warbler
- Rob's Idaho Perspective: Why some rails have white tails
- Bay & Environment: Knot to worry - time to quit horseshoe-ing around?
- Round Robin: Globe-trotting Godwits: A Report from Chile
- GrrlScientist: Free Book PDF: Endemic Birds of Sri Lanka
- John Rakestraw: Wigeon ID
- New regulations end the requirement for federal agencies to submit environmental assessments to the US Fish and Wildlife Service for review and bar federal agencies from considering the impact of climate change on endangered species. The new rules were finalized yesterday and will take effect before Bush leaves office.
- The Interior Department released a list of 251 candidate species for listing under the Endangered Species Act.
- Excellent EPA series: Johnson profile; court follies; Performance Track; clean air.
