Posts
Black-throated Blue Warbler / Uploaded to Flickr by GeomaticsmanBird and birding news
- At least some bird species can dance in time with music. Film analysis of a sulphur-crested cockatoo and an African grey parrot show that they adjust their movements to match a musical tempo, even with songs they have not heard before.
- Larger groups of house sparrows are better than small groups or individuals at solving problems. The reason appears to be that the larger groups have more diversity of skills.
- The European Union is now allowing farmers to leave dead animals in the fields to feed vultures. The practice had been banned during the outbreak of Mad Cow Disease, with devastating effects on vultures.
- A stray dog killed 50 wedge-tailed shearwaters at the Nature Conservancy's Mo'omomi Beach Preserve in Hawaii. Shearwaters are easy prey during nesting season due to their difficulty walking.
- Poachers steal birds from endangered Hispaniola parrots' nests during the breeding season to supply the pet industry.
- A federal court invalidated a drilling plan on BLM property in New Mexico due to insufficient attention to the plan's impact on wildlife habitat, particularly for Aplomado Falcons.
- In DC, there is a robin nest outside the White House briefing room.
- Prairie Ice: Grouse Comparison
- Search and Serendipity: Shorebirdonia
- BES Group: Role of the camera in birdwatching
- Urban Hawks: Worm-eating Warbler
- Rock Paper Lizard: Birding in Dogland: Yellow-rumped Warblers.
- Logging operations in Washington state won an exemption from the Endangered Species Act by agreeing to protect fish; however, there has been substantial noncompliance with the rules.
- Overfertilization of grasslands is causing loss of plant diversity due to increased competition for light.
- New satellite imagery shows further destabilization of the Wilkins Ice Shelf. New icebergs are breaking away in the area vacated by a collapsed ice bridge.
- Kenya's Masai Mara is losing many of its wild grazing animals. The ungulates are having difficulty adjusting to the growing human population.
- Canada and the United Kingdom both plan to stop building conventional coal plants.
- A new study predicts severe water shortfalls along the Colorado River even under conservative climate change estimates. One problem is that current rations were set during the wettest decades of the past 1,200 years.
- Rare fishless lakes in Maine have greater biodiversity among invertebrates and amphibians. Many species only occur in lakes where there is no predation from fish.
- There is talk of introducing a "clean coal" plant to New Jersey.
- The Drinking Bird: More on global warming, biodiversity and perception
- The Island of Doubt: Cumulative carbon emissions: A new way to "frame" the climate challenge
- RealClimate: Hit the Brakes Hard
