Posts
Shorebird Nation (visit and view large) / Photo by Ingrid TaylarBird and birding news
- David Sibley has a primer on identifying female goldeneyes, inspired by a sighting in New Jersey.
- Part of the stimulus package is funding a $799,000 habitat restoration at Shawangunk Grasslands NWR in New York. The abandoned runway will be buried with soil and then planted with grasses favored by open-country birds.
- More than 75% of the Atlantic Puffins from the North Sea's largest breeding colony head to the Atlantic Ocean rather than stay in the North Sea according to new geolocation data. There is a video at the link of a researcher tagging one of the birds.
- Sleep helps European Starlings remember new sounds to incorporate into their vocal repertoire.
- Gardeners in California should finish any major pruning now because birds are already beginning to nest.
- Also in California, a trapping program caught 71 feral peafowl from Palos Verde Peninsula. The birds will be relocated for adoption. A survey in 2008 recorded 89 feral peafowl on the peninsula.
- Cold weather has driven thousands of Fieldfares from Siberia to a farm in Suffolk in the U.K. There is a video of the flock at the link.
- A Bald Eagle recently died of lead poisoning in Iowa; nearly 60 percent of the 130 birds that died at rehabilitation sites in the past five years tested positive for lead poisoning.
- Based on current trends, the Dutch godwit population is aging too rapidly to survive without intervention to improve chick survival.
- The Globe and Mail answers why Canada Geese walk rather than fly across roads.
- Finally, here is an article with some fabulous bird photos.
- The Nightjar: Historical Bird Records: How Much Should We Believe? Black Rail, Greene County, NY 1963
- Conservation Maven: Identifying minimum patch sizes for breeding success in birds
- The City Birder: Bird Lore & Bird Photography
- OC Warbler: Home Again (Or I Saw My Millionth Eastern Phoebe and Nobody Believed Me)
- Prairie Ice: Cold Weather Birds
- Rob's Idaho Perspective: East African Raptor Ecology
- The Birdchaser: Slender-billed Curlew Video
- BirdCanada: A Birding Lesson
- The US Fish and Wildlife Service is having difficulty integrating climate science into the agency's decisions. Key questions include how much resources to put into coastal habitat threatened by rising sea levels and what species need protection due to warming.
- A new report from the Health Effects Institute reviews over 700 studies and finds evidence of a causal connection between car exhaust and childhood asthma, as well as heart disease and respiratory illnesses.
- A bill passed by New Jersey's legislature would require registration of off-road vehicles and impose higher fines for illegal riding on private or public land without permission.
- Also in New Jersey, a 73-acre property in Long Beach Township may be transferred from the Army Corps of Engineers to Forsythe NWR. This would protect that stretch of salt marsh from further development.
- Many new species of herpefauna were recently discovered in Ecuador, including over 30 species of frog and a snake that eats snails.
