Loose Feathers #251

Black Guillemot on Metinic Island / Photo by Brette Soucie/USFWS

Birds and birding news

• Turkey and Syria are cooperating on conservation efforts for the Northern Bald Ibis. Syria wants to rebuild its breeding colony, which recently reached a low of four birds.
• EBird is using time on a supercomputer to interpret bird sightings data entered by its users. 
• The Great Auk, an extinct seabird, is being memorialized with a pair of two-meter bronze sculptures, one in Newfoundland and the other in Iceland.
• A couple from Wales set a new world big year record in 2008 when they saw 4,341 species in 27 countries. The record is in the news now because the couple is publishing a book on their big year.
• Perched birds will face the same direction (into the wind) if conditions are windy.

Birds in the blogosphere

• eBird News: Improving your eBird reporting skills--Chickadees
• The Drinking Bird: Super eBird
• Notes from soggy bottom: Winter vs. Pacific Wren vocalizations 

Oil Spill

• Even though the flow of oil has stopped, BP's oil spill remains a threat to migratory birds. Since the wellhead was plugged, rescuers have found more oiled birds than ever, partly because they are able to go into some nesting colonies that they had stayed out of during the breeding season.
• Nearly 200 oiled pelicans from Louisiana have been released in Texas after they were cleaned. 
• One question in the aftermath of the spill is what the oil will do to the deep scattering layer, the biodiverse organisms that dwell below the sunlit layer of the ocean. Many cetaceans and commercially important fish depend on this layer for food.
• The lawsuits arising from the BP oil spill have been consolidated in a New Orleans court. The decision to consolidate there (instead of Houston) is generally seen as a boon to plaintiffs.
• Birds oiled during the Michigan oil spill are being cleaned and released. The released birds wear green bands that mark the treated birds for continued monitoring. So far, 44 animals have been cleaned and released, and another 205 are still being treated.
• The Michigan spill is expected to have long-term effects on the Kalamazoo River.

Environment and biodiversity

• Where to locate large-scale solar generation farms is a thorny issue. Generally unusable farmland or former industrial sites make more environmental sense than desert wilderness.
• A giant, island-sized chunk of ice broke off Greenland on August 5.
• Fires in Russia and floods in Pakistan may both be related to an unusual monsoon pattern this summer.
• According to a federal judge, gray wolves in Montana and Idaho must be treated the same way as gray wolves in Wyoming since all three are part of the same biological population. This ruling puts restores Endangered Species Act protection for wolves in those two states.
• So far this year, 17 nations have beaten their all-time heat records.
• The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has stopped the restoration of oysters in Raritan Bay.