Loose Feathers #263

Parasitic Jaeger / Photo by Art Sowls (USFWS)

Birds and birding news

• As the Arctic warms from climate change, Polar Bears may be able to survive by preying on a new food source, Snow Goose eggs. Such predation is unlikely to threaten the Snow Goose population since their breeding season only partially overlaps the period when polar bears are onshore raiding nests.
• Birds hit powerlines because of blind spots in their vision; when they look down for other birds or feeding areas, they cannot see what is straight in front of them.
• This is the season for spotting jaegers if you watch birds along major bodies of water such as the oceans or the Great Lakes.
• About 60 migrating songbirds crashed into storefront windows in Rehoboth Beach, DE, during a large nocturnal migration flight last Friday.
• Farmland birds with larger brains seem to be less vulnerable to ecological change.
• Three captive-bred California Condors were released into the wild in Arizona and California.
• Kingfisher numbers in the U.K. are rising thanks to better water quality in the country's streams and canals.
• Birders in Manitoba are conducting field research for an upcoming breeding bird atlas.

Birds in the blogosphere

• The Drinking Bird: A Pacific Wren dilemma
• The Birdchaser: Why I Love Audubon (and Audubon and Birds?)
• The Birder's Library: Birds of Cape May
• Not Exactly Rocket Science: The bird that cries hawk: fork-tailed drongos rob meerkats with false alarms
• NYT City Room: A Star at the Public Library: A Little Yellow Bird
• brewster’s linnet: Harry Hits the Press

Oil Spill

• National Geographic has a video on citizen science efforts to track birds in the area affected by the BP spill.
• The federal government enrolled 470,000 acres of farmland for habitat conversion to attract migratory shorebirds and waterfowl away from the Gulf of Mexico. The fields are flooded so that birds may use them as temporary wetlands.
• Beyond the threat posed by lingering oil, birds migrating over the Gulf at night can be disoriented by the bright lights on oil platforms, much like birds flying through cities can be disoriented by skyscrapers. The U.S. Minerals Management Service has failed to push oil companies to install safer lighting, even though its own study discovered the threat.
• Louisiana has decided to stop the sand berm project and convert the existing berms into barrier islands.
• Many Gulf residents continue to distrust the evaluations of industry and government scientists about the safety of the Gulf's waters.

Environment and biodiversity

• Narwhals tagged with sensors are collecting ocean temperature data in Baffin Bay off western Greenland.
• This week's U.S. election brought a lot of climate change deniers into the House and Senate, or promoted existing ones into positions of greater influence. This threatens the chances for green energy legislation and other environmental goals.
• A Malaysian court fined and jailed a man for illegally trafficking boa constrictors and other wild animals.
• The National Park Service is trying to encourage more minorities to take advantage of the country's national parks. Wilderness parks like Yosemite attract particularly low numbers of minorities, especially blacks.
• Shortly before California voters reaffirmed the state's climate change law, the state released a draft of regulations for how it will implement the law.
• Shade trees may discourage some criminal behavior by making a neighborhood look better maintained.
• Mother Jones evaluates whether it is better to turn a computer off or put it to sleep. It saves more energy to turn a computer off, but the energy savings are minimal for contemporary laptops.

Carnivals

• Berry Go Round #33
• Carnival of the Blue #42
• Circus of the Spineless #56
• Festival of the Trees #53
• Carnival of Evolution #29