Posts
Evermann's Rock Ptarmigan, Attu / Photo by Steve Ebbert (USFWS)Bird and birding news
- The USGS North American Bird Phenology Program is looking for volunteers to help transcribe six million Migration Observer Cards that were compiled between 1880 and 1970. The data from the cards is valuable for tracking migration changes due to climate change or other factors.
- The Nature Conservancy has posted a study of potential wind generation sites in Montana (pdf) that maps where turbines would do the least harm to wildlife.
- A neurologist writes that birds near airports may unable to avoid jets because of hearing damage that would affect their ability to localize sounds or hear other birds' distress calls.
- British researchers are investigating how micro-turbines, small wind turbines located on buildings, affect birds and bats.
- Seven men were arrested in Florida for shooting 21 birds in a protected area. Several birds were species of special concern. (So how many dead bird species do you see in that photograph? I count six.) (via burdr)
- A study shows that pigeons (and baboons) can understand logical relations.
- Pterosaurs had a breathing system similar to modern birds; the network of air sacs likely enabled powered flight.
- Male long-tailed manakins cooperate to attract mates; while only the dominant male actually mates, the subordinate male eventually gains his own territory for mating. At the link is a video of the courtship dance.
- The Rossmoor community in California has already killed 22 acorn woodpeckers to keep them from drilling holes in houses to store acorns. My reading of the article is that the party most at fault for the property damage done by woodpeckers is the developer, who used shoddy construction materials that make easy drilling sites.
- Birdchick: Scott's Wild Food Bird Recall
- Enchilada's Blog: Funneling the Muse
- Field of View: Wisconsin mango ‘doing great’
- BES Group: Stork-billed Kingfisher and the tilapia
- The EPA is likely to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act if it determines that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare. A decision is likely within the next two months.
- Climate change is likely to be worse than predicted if left unchecked, due to feedback from deforestation in the tropics and thawing of the tundra's methane-laden permafrost.
- Another potential feedback loop is water vapor, a greenhouse gas that will increase with higher temperatures.
- The eastern United States lost 59,000 acres of coastal wetlands per year between 1998 and 2004. Here is the full report released by NOAA (pdf): Status and Trends of Wetlands in the Coastal Watersheds of the Eastern United States, 1998 to 2004.
- Recent expeditions have found 235 species that occur in ice-laden oceans around both the Arctic and Antarctic.
- RealClimate: Bushfires and extreme heat in south-east Australia
