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Willow Ptarmigan / Photo by Tim Bowman (USFWS)Birds and birding news
- Even though rooks do not use tools in the wild, tests on captive rooks has revealed that they can make and use tools to solve problems and retrieve food. The findings suggest that rooks have innate intelligence that they can employ only as necessary.
- The US Fish and Wildlife Service opposes Utah's selenium limits for the Great Salt Lake on the grounds that the state would allow a selenium level high enough to kill 10% of mallards. The EPA must approve the state's water regulations before they go into effect.
- The RSPB's new Red List of endangered species includes the common cuckoo. Overall, 21% of the U.K.'s birds are on the list.
- Young male canaries can develop a normal song even if they were only exposed to poor singers as chicks.
- The American Bird Conservancy has put out a video about the problems with trap, neuter, and release programs for feral cats.
- The migration paths of Sylvia warblers could increase by as much as 400 km.
- Taylor, Texas, is against egrets nesting in their neighborhood. The egrets in the video appeared to be all cattle egrets.
- The FAA is testing new bird radar systems for airports, but implementation is several years away. Some US Air Force bases already use the technology.
- Five peregrine chicks have hatched on top of New York City bridges this spring.
- A new guide to birding sites in Eastern Pennsylvania covers 89 sites in 13 counties, including all of the Lehigh, Schuykill, and Delaware valleys. See SchuykillRiver.org for information on obtaining a copy.
- Bird banding: videos show hummingbird banding in Idaho and peregrine banding in New York.
- It is possible to go birding by bicycle.
- BES Group: Strange behaviour of a pair of Asian Glossy Starlings
- Birding in Maine: It’s a Gulls Life
- 10,000 Birds: Puerto Rican Vireo (I can see you…)
- The Obama administration is delaying implementation of a new policy for building roads in designated national forest roadless areas for a year. In the meantime, any new roads will need approval from the Secretary of Agriculture.
- A Canadian court ordered tar sand mines to report what toxins are present in tailings ponds.
- The melting of Greenland's ice sheets could cause the ocean to rise much faster in the northeastern United States and Canada than elsewhere. This region could have an extra 1-2 feet of seawater by 2100.
- New plant growth on a thawing tundra will not fix sufficient carbon to negate the release of gases from melting permafrost.
- Climate change and ocean acidification are disrupting the complex ecosystems that corals need to survive.
- A GAO report found that the US Fish and Wildlife Service lacks a system to follow monitoring reports and cumulative takes for endangered and threatened species.
