Posts
Piping Plover on a New Jersey beach / Photo by Gene Nieminen (USFWS)
Bird and birding news
- EBird has opened global data entry. This means that birds can now be reported from any location in the world. Data quality filters and checklists are still in development, so eBird Global is designated as beta for now.
- The Boston Globe writes about the problem of balancing the needs of beach nesting birds against human access to beaches. Even with protected areas, the Piping Plovers are not entirely safe; unleashed dogs sometimes run into restricted areas and people tear down the fencing for firewood or wander in to relieve themselves.
- Atlantic Puffins from Britain's largest puffin colony fly each day to a foraging hotspot about 20 miles away. The colony is slowly recovering from a population slide that happened a few years ago. The travel distances were recorded using GPS loggers attached to puffins; other data recorders found that puffins only dove about 4-5 meters to catch food.
- Endangered species protection has not succeeded (so far, anyway) in saving Spotted Owls, but it has restored a lot of their former habitat.
- Jerdon's Courser, a small shorebird, was thought extinct for 80 years until its recent rediscovery. The bird is so cryptic that a scientist who spent 8 years studying the species only saw it three times. Instead of sight records, the study uses tracking strips and camera traps.
- Pied Wagtails were found nesting inside a tractor.
- The BBC has a gallery of photos of birds from the island of Jersey.
- Not Exactly Rocket Science: Robins can literally see magnetic fields, but only if their vision is sharp
- The Drinking Bird: The honesty of birders
- WorldWaders: Mountain Plover Proposed for Listing as a Threatened Species
- Round Robin: NestWatchers can help look for oil’s wider effects
- One of the hardest decisions for bird rescuers and rehabilitators is which oiled birds can or should be rescued.
- BP thinks that it can stop the leaking well by July 27; the Coast Guard thinks that mid-August is more realistic.
- The oil from BP's oil spill glows under ultraviolet light, a property that cleanup crews are using to find oil they might miss otherwise.
- This week tar balls arrived on Texas beaches, so every state around the Gulf of Mexico has now been affected by oil.
- Birding Adventures TV is filming a ten-part documentary on the oil spill. The show airs each Sunday at 10 am local time on Fox SportsNet.
- IBRRC: The eye of the storm: Oiled bird care Gulf update
- Gulf Coast Oil Spill: Bird Crisis Increasing As Southbound Migrants Arrive, And Tides Inundate Rookeries
- Another independent investigation has cleared the University of East Anglia's climate scientists of misconduct. The controversy arose after someone hacked the university's servers and found unflattering remarks in some of the scientists' email messages. Now that the investigation is finished, Phil Jones will return to the university's Climate Research Unit as the director of research.
- The EPA proposed new regulations to reduce air pollution that crosses state lines. Power plants would have to reduce the sulfur in their emissions by installing cleaning equipment or using low-sulfur fuel.
- Two new species of pancake batfish (family Ogcocephalidae) have been discovered in the Gulf of Mexico.
- The Coffee and Conservation blog has a new Quick guide to coffee certifications. The guide explains what organizations grant the certifications and what types of environmental requirements roasters need to meet.
- Over 25% of plant species in the world are threatened with extinction; many could become extinct before they have been scientifically discovered. Threats include clearing land for agriculture and development, pollution, and changing water levels.
