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Loggerhead Shrike / Photo by Dave Menke (USFWS)
Birds and birding news
- An aerial survey of the Aransas population of Whooping Cranes found 211 individuals: 193 adults and 18 juveniles arranged in 20 family groups.
- Voluntary use of copper ammunition by hunters in Grand Teton National Park reduced bloodstream lead levels in the local raven population.
- Chickens that show secondary sexual characteristics of both males and females have mixed genes for both sexes.
- The Syncrude trial continued in Edmonton this week, with the court hearing testimony about the company's actions in the week leading up to the deaths of 1600 waterbirds in an oil tailings pond.
- A Red-tailed Hawk survived a collision with a car going 70 miles per hour.
- A rare Vanuatu Petrel was photographed for the first time after going 80 years without being seen.
- Australia may have a new species, a Semipalmated Plover found at a sewage pond in Broome. Ornithologists are still trying to rule out the more likely Common Ringed Plover or a hybrid of the two species.
- A flock of 75 starlings mysteriously fell from the sky and died in a British neighborhood. The best guess is that they were getting chased by a predator and collided with something.
- A US Congressman has introduced legislation to require all federal buildings to use bird-friendly design to reduce window collisions.
- Several recent raids have found a few hundred finches captured and bred for illegal finch fighting.
- A legal fight is still ongoing in the case of a sickly Bald Eagle fledgling found at Petty's Island in New Jersey. A key question is whether harassment by a development company contributed to the eaglet's demise.
- Conservation Maven: Automating bird surveys with remote sensors
- LAist: First Condor Nest in 100 Years Appears at Pinnacles National Monument
- Round Robin: Crow Researcher Finds Paradise, Tomorrow
- Ben Cruachan: Bird portraits
- 10,000 Birds: Common Raven Nest in Queens, NY
- An upscale sushi restaurant in Santa Monica (frequented by celebrities) was raided over the weekend for serving illegal whale meat to customers. The investigation was conducted by federal wildlife officials with the assistance of the documentary filmmakers who won an Oscar for "The Cove." The whale meat was identified as Sei whale, an endangered species. The restaurant will face federal criminal charges.
- In more positive cetacean news, the population of humpback whales off the west coast of North America has been increasing.
- Japan promises to ignore any international ban on the bluefin tuna trade.
- The current extinction is 100 to 1000 times the natural evolution rate.
- Several bats infected with white-nose syndrome were found in a cave in Cumberland, Maryland.
- The U.K. is introducing a psyllid (Aphalara itadori) to control Japanese knotweed, a noxious invasive plant that is difficult to control by other means.
- Male Armyworm moths mimic bat squeaks to make it easier to mate with females.
- Arctic reindeer do not regulate their sleep patterns the same way that other mammals do. Most mammals have a hormone-based clock that operates independently from cycles of light and dark; in reindeer, the hormone releases are dependent on ambient light.
- Middlesex County plans to purchase two properties with 144 acres to protect their farmland from development.
