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Cooper's Hawk / Photo by Birdfreak
Bird and birding news
- Analysis of Bearded Vulture feathers showed that the silvery sheen seen on the backs of these and other birds is caused by specialized barbules on the birds' wing feathers. The special barbules allow birds in open areas to make themselves conspicuous to potential mates while at the same time taking advantage of the melanin in darker feathers.
- Among Wrentits and Song Sparrows, constant-effort mist netting during the breeding season has little discernible effect on nestlings.
- Raptor deaths have continued to increase at the Altamont Pass wind farm, despite efforts to reduce accidental bird kills. The continued deaths pose a major problems for not only only for that site but also for operating additional wind farms in areas with heavy bird migration.
- Red Knots on the Delaware Bay seemed to be doing a bit better this year, though it is too early to tell if the restrictions on harvesting horseshoe crabs will reverse the species's decline.
- Old World Vultures are more common in areas with traditional transhumant farming. Traditional practices are more likely to leave behind the bovine carrion that vultures need.
- The week the U.S. House heard testimony on the proposed renewal of the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act.
- The Nature Conservancy purchased a major land tract to conserve Red-cockaded Woodpeckers.
- A new refuge for flamingos in Bolivia has become the largest protected wetland in the Andes.
- Conservation groups have found the bodies of 150 illegally killed birds on Malta. The birds were killed during Malta's traditional fall hunt and include protected species.
- Someone ran over and killed 20 gulls at Port Canaveral in Florida.
- At least 10,000 birds have been found dead at the American Falls Reservoir in Idaho. The suspected cause of death is avian botulism, a common late summer ailment.
- Earth, Wind and Water: Delivery from New Jersey
- Bird Canada: Featured Feathers: Rusty Blackbird
- New Jersey Outdoors: Species Profile - American Bittern
- Field of View: Bird-like dinosaur with four wings discovered
- Stokes Birding Blog: Juvenile Hawks in Flight
- 10,000 Birds: The Dunning-Kruger Effect as it Relates to Birding
- Birdchick: Harris Hawk Goes for Cockatoo
- Scientists at the U.N. have updated predictions from 2007 to reflect new information. UNEP is now predicting a global temperature increase of 6.3 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century even if various emission reduction plans are implemented. Such a temperature increase could cause a sea level rise of 6 feet rather than the 1.5 feet in the 2007 report.
- A satellite has been measuring the thinning of polar glaciers with lasers.
- Senate leadership blocked Lisa Murkowski's attempt to ban the EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions.
- The Obama administration is trying to avoid dismantling dams on the Snake River by finding other ways to improve the salmon situation. Of course, it would be preferable to
- One positive side effect of the recession is that it has reduced global carbon emissions by 2% in 2009, the biggest drop in four decades. Of course, it would be preferable to achieve an annual reduction like that without putting millions of people out of work.
- World leaders held an environmental summit in New York this week to prepare for the upcoming climate summit in Copenhagen. The meeting at Copenhagen will revise the 1998 Kyoto Protocols.
- Monarch butterflies are guided on their annual migrations by light sensors on their antennae.
- New Jersey is trying to re-establish oyster beds in Raritan Bay using artificial reefs.
- Coffee and Conservation: The water footprint of coffee
- American energy companies are working on developing carbon capture as a joint project with Chinese energy companies. It remains unclear whether capturing and storing emissions is feasible as a solution to climate change.
