Posts
Black Oystercatcher / Photo by Lee Karney (USFWS)
Birds and birding news
- Wildlife biologists are studying American Oystercatchers on Virginia's Eastern Shore with birding banding and color marking. The state has about 730 pairs of breeding oystercatchers – more than any other state.
- One of the major challenges of California Condor reintroduction is teaching the captive-bred birds to live in the wild. A major step has been letting captive-bred chicks fledge in the wild in locations where they can learn from wild adults.
- Vermont is planning to reduce the Lake Champlain breeding populations of Double-crested Cormorants and Ring-billed Gulls. Double-crested Cormorants are blamed for reducing fish stocks and destroying habitats around their nesting sites; the state wants to bring the number down from 14,000-16,000 to 3,300. Ring-billed Gulls will be reduced from 5,000 nests to 300.
- Researchers found a fossil track from Diatryma, a large extinct bird, in Montana. The fossil dates to about 40 million years ago.
- Female Adelie Penguins choose mates based on the quality of their vocalization displays. Males flap their wings, point their bills to the sky, and give squawks and trills to advertise themselves. Males with a consistent pitch are the most desirable as they tend to be more successful at brooding and parenting.
- The New York Times has a series of posts from a scientist studying birds in Kenya.
- Genetic data show that birds from North America repeatedly colonized South America via the Panama land bridge.
- Some ducks and Canada Geese were shot and beaten in Mount Laurel, NJ. Even though government agencies can cull flocks, it is illegal for individuals to kill birds themselves.
- Lightning struck two birders on Long Island; both survived.
- The Drinking Bird: Western Pelican
- Prairie Ice: Sprague's Pipit or Horned Lark?
- WorldWaders: Managing water levels on wet grasslands to improve foraging conditions for breeding Northern Lapwings
- PhotoNaturalist: How to Photograph Hummingbirds in the Wild
- Greg Laden's Blog: The Oystercatcher and the Clam
- Tetrapod Zoology: The incredible bill of the oystercatcher
- Fotoportmann: Ospreys banding and Kestrels release: Long Island, NY
- Wild New Jersey: NJ Audubon Society and Edison Wetlands release first-ever bird survey of the Lower Raritan River
- Yesterday BP stopped the flow of oil out of the leaking well for the first time since the spill began. The well will now be subject to a series of pressure tests to check the integrity of the well head; if the tests fail, the well will be reopened and collection of some oil will resume. Even with the leak stopped, much of the oil that has already leaked will remain in and around the gulf for months or years.
- Some of the cleaned and rehabilitated birds are being released on Sanibel Island.
- Shorebirds are already heading south, and waterfowl will join them in a few months. This means that more species are at risk of coming into contact with the contaminated wetlands around the Gulf of Mexico. Some, such as Piping Plover, are endangered.
- An op-ed column from the Environmental Defense Fund compares BP's spill to the Exxon Valdez.
- Highly Allochthonous debunks one of the potential disaster scenarios involving methane releases.
- Urban Dragon Hunters: Identifying Odonata from photographs
- Wild Muse: More hybrid lovin’: coywolves, wolves and coyotes…
- New Jersey's Meadowlands is home to 78 species of bees according to a recent survey. The bees recorded on the survey included two that had not been seen previously in North America.
- A four-year survey suggests that the Massachusetts horseshoe crab population continues to decline.
- Researchers in New England are trying to determine just how many species of azure butterflies are in the region. They believe that Vermont has at least three azure species and possibly five.
- Fireflies in the Smoky Mountains rely on synchronous flashing to lure females.
- This summer, Arctic sea ice is at its lowest recorded extent for June.
