Posts
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| A Short-tailed Albatross hatched at Midway for the second time, ever / Photo by Pete Leary (USFWS) |
- A recent study attempts to explain why Barn Owls are able to fly noiselessly. Cited factors include its slow flight speed, wing curvature that allows each wing beat to produce more lift, and soft fringes on the wings and dense plumage overall that muffles sound.
- Tiger sharks in the Gulf of Mexico are eating songbirds disoriented by the lights on oil rigs.
- Someone recorded video of a Hooded Crow snowboarding on a rooftop in Russia.
- Native forest birds in Hawaii are having trouble completing their annual molts. The likely cause is lack of food due to competition with introduced species.
- European birds and butterflies are having difficulty moving north quickly enough to keep pace with climate change.
- Sibley Guides: Distinguishing male and female American Goldfinches
- The Drinking Bird: The Black Hole of Birding
- Not Exactly Rocket Science: Male bowerbirds use forced perspective architecture to get more sex
- Birding Is Fun!: Nesting Black-billed Magpies
- Bourbon, Bastards, and Birds: Plains Plovers
- ABA Blog: Thoughts on Planning a Big Year at the Beginning of the Year
- The Birder's Report: Falcated Duck at Colusa National Wildlife Refuge
- Outside My Window: Winter Trees: Red Oak
- Bug Eric: Wasp Wednesday: Not Wasp VI
- Safari Ecology: Life spans of tropical birds
- Neurotic Physiology: Friday Weird Science: Is that ostrich flirting with me?
- This week, the Obama administration denied a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have carried oil from tar sands mines in Alberta for refining in Texas. The State Department said that it needed more time to evaluate the project than the 60-day deadline imposed by Congress in December. Cancellation of that route could mean more tanker traffic departing from British Columbia. The Obama administration also left the door open for TransCanada to reapply with an alternate pipeline route. Here are some of the animals that would be affected by the Keystone XL pipeline's route.
- In 2009, scientists discovered over 19,000 new species. These included 7 birds, 41 mammals, 120 reptiles, 148 amphibians, 314 fish, 626 crustaceans, 9,738 insects, 1,360 fungi and 2,184 plants. That brings the number of known species over 1.9 million, but there may be as many as 10 million undiscovered plant and animal species.
- According to NASA, 2011 was the ninth-warmest year on record. Here is an animation of the average global temperatures since 1880.
- The Amazon is actually two distinct forests, one much richer in biodiversity than the other.
- The Catalina Island fox has rebounded from a low of 100 individuals in 1999 to 1,542 today thanks to conservation efforts. The population had been about 1,300 before it was devastated by an epidemic of distemper.
- About six million bats have died from white-nose syndrome in the past six years – many more than previously estimated. Here is an interview on the disease's potential for spreading west.
