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Bushtit / Photo by George Gentry (USFWS)
Birds and birding news
- A fossil penguin was recently discovered in Peru with intact feathers on its left wing. The feathers were preserved sufficiently for scientists to determine that the penguin had gray and brown plumage rather than the black and white familiar from modern penguins. For more on this discovery, read the blog posts at Laelaps and Not Exactly Rocket Science.
- Raptors can use one of three types of soaring to save energy while they are hunting or migrating: slope updrafts, thermals, or wind.
- Desert-nesting Bald Eagles in Arizona, a population still classed as endangered, increased their breeding population over the past year. There are now 104 breeding adults, and 44 eaglets fledged in 2010.
- The US Fish and Wildlife Service decided that the Gunnison Sage Grouse deserves protection under the Endangered Species Act but that they are precluded from protecting it because other species are more deserving.
- Climate change poses a significant risk for long-distance migratory birds since it may upset the timing of when food is available on their breeding grounds and stopover habitat.
- Birds native to New Zealand produce a smelly wax for preening; the scent is pungent enough to attract predators.
- The new president of Audubon is visiting the relatively new Debs Park in Los Angeles, an urban nature park. The park offers family nature walks in Spanish.
- The oldest Whimbrel in the world was banded in 1986 and was found breeding this year on the same island where it was banded.
- New colonies of the Baudo Oropendola – and endangered species – were found in Colombia. The discovery raises the known world population of the species from less than a dozen to almost one hundred individuals.
- Birds in urban areas are exposed to more predators than birds in rural areas, but the greater number of predators does not increase the amount of nest predation.
- Birding Dude: Floyd Bennett Field Blue Ribbon Panel Meeting (Queens)
- Tetrapod Zoology: The Cretaceous birds and pterosaurs of Cornet: part I, the birds / part II, the pterosaurs
- Round Robin: Do Siskins Move in Straight Lines?
- Sibley Guides: Bill size, not shape, distinguishes Cackling and Canada Goose
- Punctuated Equilibrium: Fossil virus leaves evolutionary footprints in songbird DNA
- ILBIRDER: Sparrows of Fall
- A progressive think tank argues that BP's oil spill could have been prevented with better regulation and enforcement.
- Gulf Coast Oil Spill: Addendum to Part I: An Interview with LSU Ornithologist Dr. James Van Remsen About the Gulf Oil Disaster
- Gulf Coast Oil Spill: Part 2: An Interview with LSU Ornithologist Dr. James Van Remsen About the Gulf Oil Disaster
- The Coast Guard is worried about the potential for an oil spill from Cuba's deepwater drilling.
- BP will pay $15 million for Clean Air Act violations at a Texas City facility.
- Reintroduction of gray wolves significantly changed the ecology of Yellowstone National Park. Elk numbers are reduced, and they tend to be more wary. That in turn allowed many streams to start flowing again, and the beaver and pronghorn populations have increased.
- The California Energy Commission issued a response to comments on the Ivanpah solar development.
- Heavy rains cause sewer overflows in New York City because the system is too antiquated to handle the volume of sewage and storm water.
- Twenty-two percent of the world's plants are at risk of extinction, with species in tropical rainforests having the greatest risk, according to a survey by the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, the Natural History Museum, and the IUCN. Another third of the species surveyed are too poorly documented to evaluate.
- Montana and Idaho want to hold a hunt for gray wolves even though the species is federally endangered. According to a study, the hunt in Montana would halve the state's wolf population.
- 'Tis the season for brown marmorated stink bugs. The bugs try to find shelter within houses as the weather gets cooler.
