Posts
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| California Least Tern / Photo by R. Baak (USFWS) |
- B95, a 19-year-old Red Knot, was spotted in Cape May this week.
- Laura Jacobs reviews the development of birding field guides, from the original Peterson to the present day.
- This summer marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Silent Spring, a watershed moment for the environmental movement.
- A scientist describes his bird monitoring program in Hawaii, which uses test plots to measure how human activities are affecting endangered native birds.
- A controversial hawk-trapping plan was abandoned in the U.K.
- A sighting of a rare Orphean Warbler is bringing birders (and their money) to Teesside in the U.K.
- The John Muir Project has asked the Forest Service to stop post-fire logging near Lake Tahoe in an area where nesting Black-backed Woodpeckers have been documented.
- Earbirding: A Veery’s Two Voices
- BirdCapeMay.org: Sooty Shearwater
- South Jersey Butterfly B/log: A Five-Year Perspective on Our Extraordinary Season
- Beetles in the Bush: Holy conglobulation, Batman!
- Tetrapod Zoology: Gadfly-petrels: rarities, a whole lot of variation and confusion, and skua mimicry (petrels part V)
- Climate monitoring stations around the Arctic have measured carbon dioxide levels of 400 parts per million in the latest set of atmospheric data. The global average is 395 parts per million. Both figures are well in excess of the highest non-catastrophic level of carbon dioxide, 350 parts per million. Since the Arctic is a leading indicator, global levels will probably hit 400 parts per million soon.
- A portion of rainforest in Guatemala that is hotspot for reptile and amphibian diversity was preserved as the Sierra Caral Amphibian Reserve. The reserve also has populations of Highland Guan, Great Curassow, and Keel-billed Motmot.
- A wind tunnel study shows that beetles' elytra (hardened forewings) do play a role in lift. However, beetles' flight is less efficient than that of other animals.
- Hawkmoths are able to sense humidity well enough to determine whether a flower has enough nectar to be worth a visit.
- Here are some suggestions for learning how to photograph dragonflies.
- Groundwater depletion contributes to sea level rise because water pumped out of the ground eventually makes its way to the sea as rain or waste water.
