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| Common Yellowthroat feeding Brown-headed Cowbirds / Photo by Bill Thompson (USFWS) |
- In addition to being one of the hottest and driest summers on record in the U.S., summer 2012 has been an irruption year for Dickcissels, which are being recorded well outside their usual range.
- Is Jonathan Franzen the world's most annoying birdwatcher? Birdchick and the Birdist say no. (via 10,000 Birds)
- A Traffic investigation charges that the Solomon Islands is a hub for illegal trade in captive wild birds, including numerous endangered species.
- According to a study, European Storm-Petrels are able to smell whether another bird would be a suitable mate.
- Over 500 dead Magellanic Penguins have washed ashore in Brazil over the past few weeks; the cause is still under investigation.
- Here are some photos of American Flamingoes (Phoenicopterus ruber) in the Bahamas.
- The US Fish and Wildlife Service has doubled the designated critical habitat for the Western Snowy Plover.
- A British ecologist has been studying the nesting guillemots on the island of Skomer for the past 40 years. In that time the guillemot population on Skomer has recovered from 2,000 to 20,0o0 individuals, which is still short of the estimated 100,000 guillemots that bred there historically.
- The UK is having a terrible summer, but the rare Ospreys at one nature preserve are doing well.
- Sibley Guides: Birds slow to react to predators because… the sun gets in their eyes
- Audubon Guides: Exception to the Rule – Woodpeckers
- Not Exactly Rocket Science: Sparrows sound sexier in the cold
- Bird Ecology Study Group: Ficus consociata: 1. Orange-bellied Flowerpecker
- Kymry: Catbirds, Spring Courtship Duet
- Wild About Ants: Chocolate, Chocolate Products, and Ants
- Insect Museum: Insect Minute – What is the biggest insect?
- Alien Plantation: [Insert Rodents of Unusual Size Joke Here]
- Bill McKibben lays out some hard numbers about climate change and its likely effects.
- A new study lends support to the idea that carbon dioxide could be sequestered by dumping iron filings in the ocean. The filings would encourage algae blooms, and when they died, the algae would sink deep into the ocean, taking the carbon with them. However, greenhouse gas emissions would still need to be reduced, even with this geoengineering method.
- The effects of climate change are not necessarily straightforward and vary from one location to another.
- Some mosses reproduce more effectively when springtails help transport sperm from males to females.
- Giant Swallowtails have been discovered breeding in Montréal, far north of their historic range.
- Invasivores are encouraging anglers to catch and eat invasive snakehead fish.
- With a growing population that depends on groundwater, Maryland has had to drill deeper for its drinking water. New analysis shows that those deeper aquifers were filled between ten thousand and two million years ago, and thus are unlikely to be replenished anytime soon.
- Long mating sessions leave dumpling squid exhausted and more vulnerable to predation.
- New York City is considering proposals to create a green roof for urban farming on top of the Hunts Point food distribution center in the Bronx.
- An iceberg twice the size of Manhattan broke off the Petermann glacier in Greenland.
- Woodbridge High School students will help with habitat restoration at a former industrial site along the Raritan River as part of an EPA program.
- Newark and New Brunswick both broke high temperature records this week as the historically hot summer continues.
- EarthFix reports on how various rivers in the Pacific Northwest still fail to meet the standards laid out in the Clean Water Act.