Posts
Crested Auklet / Photo by Donna Dewhurst (USFWS)Bird and birding news
- Among Crested Auklets, the size of a male's crest indicates his suitability as a mate. Larger crests correlate with lower levels of stress hormones and better ability to deal with the stresses of rearing chicks.
- The Yellow-billed Loon is worthy of listing under the Endangered Species Act but is not yet on the list because it ranks behind higher-priority species.
- Con Edison is having difficulty keeping Monk Parakeets from building nests on its utility poles. A mechanical owl kept them away until its batteries ran out and the parakeets figured out the fraud.
- A condor pair is nesting at Pinnacles National Monument for the first time in 70 years.
- This article has a video of migrating Sandhill Cranes in Nebraska.
- Workers have found dozens of dead ducks and fish in New Jersey's Oradell Reservoir. The cause is unknown.
- Here is a short article on bird banding at an observatory in Ohio.
- Disease outbreaks can be prevented by keeping feeders clean.
- The US House passed a bill funding international crane conservation projects.
- Living the Scientific Life: Saving the `Alalâ
- The Zen Birdfeeder: The Many Sides of a Fox Sparrow
- Bell Tower Birding: There may be more to it than just context
- The energy industry continues to insist that global warming is unproven long after its own scientific advisers have reported that climate science cannot be refuted. Internal documents show industry awareness of the greenhouse effect as early as 1995.
- California is set to approve a Low Carbon Fuel Standard that would force fuel distributors to reduce the carbon intensity of the fuels they sell in the state. One big pending fight is how to rank various types of ethanol under the standard.
- Air pollution may have led plants to absorb more carbon dioxide in the past few decades than they would have under clearer skies. As a result, steeper cuts in greenhouse gas emissions may be necessary to prevent catastrophic climate change. (But see also the comment in RealClimate: Yet more aerosols.)
- Leaded air pollution may help clouds form at warmer temperatures and with less moisture.
- Recent growth of Antarctic sea ice is due to the hole in the southern ozone layer, which has slowed the effects of global warming on that continent.
- Forests are likely to become carbon sources instead of carbon sinks if the earth continues to warm. (See also The Island of Doubt: If you go out in the woods today)
- The precise cause of intersex fish in the Potomac River is still unknown.
- Find out the polluters in your area with MapEcos, a Google Maps mashup with data from the US government.
- The world's largest rivers are losing their flow of water. The main cause is a warmer and drier climate, followed by human extraction projects.
