Posts
 |
| Le Conte's Sparrow / Photo by Alex Galt (USFWS) |
- One of the authors of the Golden Guide, Bertel Bruun, died this week. Bruun was noteworthy for designing the Golden Guide's page layout, with text and plates on facing pages instead of having the text and plates separated (as in the earlier Peterson guides). His design set the standard for subsequent field guides.
- A proposed wind farm in Washington state is drawing criticism over its potential effects on endangered Northern Spotted Owls.
- The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering MacGillivray's Seaside Sparrow, Florida Sandhill Crane, and Black Rail in its review of the endangered status of hundreds of southeastern wetland species.
- When Nazca Boobies are bullied as chicks, they often grow up to bully other baby boobies.
- Here are some photos of Hyacinth Macaws.
- Tetrapod Zoology: Hoatzins are no longer exclusively South American and once crossed an ocean
- 10,000 Birds: Dark Deeds
- The Skeptical Moth: Key to the Lepidoptera of Canada
- March of the Fossil Penguins: A Map for Our Tour of the Penguin Skeleton
- Laelaps: Evolutionary Treasures Locked in the Teeth of Early Whales
- Bourbon, Bastards and Birds: "Meh." - Obama and the Endangered Species Act
- Bird Ecology Study Group: Red-crowned Crane dancing during an earthquake
- Compound Eye: Nikon Announces Winners of 2011 Small World Competition
- Beetles in the Bush: Crossidius coralinus fulgidus
- The Brownstone Birding Blog: "Birding Jargon"
- The Nemesis Bird: What’s Your Favorite Warbler?
- History of Geology: September 30, 1861: The First Feather
- The Birdist: A Birder's Apprehension to The Big Year
- This summer, Arctic sea ice reached its second-lowest minimum extent; the record low was in 2007. Lower summer sea ice minimums have some consequences. Cargo ships can use the opened Northwest Passage to travel between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The Obama administration is opening more of the Arctic to drilling. Meanwhile, walruses have to pull out and rest on land instead of sea ice.
- The EPA released a preliminary plan for restoring ecosystems around the Gulf of Mexico. Among other things, the plan calls for adjusting flood control and navigation projects by the Army Corps of Engineers to make them compatible with wetland restoration. It emphasizes improving water quality, particularly reducing the Gulf's dead zone, and the need for monitoring more species in the Gulf.
- Climate scientists are reporting the first ever Arctic ozone hole, which formed over the Arctic last winter.
- The loss of forests to drought, fire, and invasive pests is removing a crucial carbon sink and local climate protector.
- German scientists have published a Distribution Atlas of Butterflies in Europe.
- A warm autumn has brought many southerly moth species to Britain.
- Camera traps have found mountain lions in Stanford University's Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve. A different mountain lion was killed by poachers in the western Santa Monica Mountains.
- The conditions are right for the Northeast to have particularly colorful fall foliage this year.
- Volunteers are working on removing invasive weeds such as Spanish broom from Angeles National Forest.
