Posts
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| Atlantic Puffins / USFWS Photo |
- Environmental groups are seeking endangered species protection for the Black-backed Woodpecker, which has declined in part because of fire suppression practices and post-fire salvage logging. The species depends on eating beetle larvae in recently-burned trees.
- The American Bird Conservancy created a map of places where birds would be most harmed by wind energy development, in the hopes of guiding such development away from those areas.
- Wandering Albatrosses that breed on South Georgia are now start breeding 2.2 days earlier than they did 30 years ago.
- Ornithologists in Peru are investigating the deaths of 538 pelicans and 54 Peruvian Boobies that were found dead on the beaches there.
- A Whooping Crane hatched in the wild in Wisconsin.
- White-tailed Sea Eagles are nesting in Ireland for the first time in over 100 years.
- A Bald Eagle in Pennsylvania somehow managed to survive lead poisoning, being shot with a BB gun, and being hit by a car – long enough for wildlife rehabilitators to find it and start treatment.
- The male Red-tailed Hawk of the pair that has been nesting at the Franklin Institute disappeared over the weekend and is presumed dead. See also this blog post, which reports that someone saw a Red-tailed Hawk get struck by a car on the Schuylkill Expressway, within the pair's territory.
- Raptor nest cams are pretty common (and popular), but there are nest cams for other birds, too. Cornell Lab of Ornithology is running a webcam in a Great Blue Heron nest.
- Sibley Guides: The annual plumage cycle of a male American Goldfinch
- 10,000 Birds: Polyandry and Polygynandry on the Tundra
- ABA Blog: Mic up that iPhone: Follow Up
- Earbirding.com: Identifying Eastern and Western Warbling Vireos
- Beetles in the Bush: Adult male Hentzia palmarum jumping spider
- The Dragonfly Woman: A New Bee House
- Compound Eye: 6 Sources of Free Images for Science Blogging
- Tetrapod Zoology: Putting petrels in their place and the possibly weird evolution of albatrosses (petrels part IV)
- Skeptical Science: Lessons from Past Predictions: Hansen 1981
- Dinosaur Tracking: New Wrinkle to the Story of the Last Dinosaurs
- A recent study found that trees with a diameter of three feet or more accounted for almost half of Yosemite National Park's biomass, even though such wide trees are only 1% of the trees growing there.
- Experiments underestimate how fast spring is advancing in response to warming.
- A new extinct species of coelacanth has been identified from fossils found in British Columbia. This fish was sleeker than previously-known coelacanths and could pursue prey over longer distances.
- The share of energy generation from renewable sources rose in many states over the past ten years. The link includes a map of renewable energy generation by state.
- According to a new study, biodiversity loss is just as serious of an environmental problem as climate change and most likely is among the top five contributors to climate change.
- The Knight Science Journalism Tracker looks at media coverage of the report on wind farms causing (local) warming.
- A paper in the journal Zootaxa announced the discovery of 24 new species skink species in the Caribbean, many of which were identified from museum specimens. Unfortunately many of the newly-discovered species may already be extinct due to predation by invasive mongooses and habitat loss.
- Energy development in the Yellowstone area is discouraging pronghorn from using their traditional wintering grounds.
- Here is a guide to common edible wild plants.
- Hurricane Irene was the 6th most damaging hurricane on record due to extreme flooding in New England.
- The Asbury Park Press lists what it considers the top ten outdoor spots in New Jersey.
- A Rutgers project is trying to find ways of making data centers more energy-efficient.
