Loose Feathers #372

Blue-winged Teal / Photo by Barbara Wheeler Photography, USFWS Volunteer

Birds and birding

• The Marbled Murrelet population has fallen by almost a third over the past decade.
• Birds such as Lesser Scaup may contribute to the spread of eelgrass, a species important for coastal ecosystem restoration.
• A widely-circulated video purporting to show a "golden eagle" snatching a toddler was a hoax created by film students in Montreal.
• Peacock mating calls draw in females from far away, so they may function as a way for males to attract additional mates.
• Here are some suggestions for how to enter Christmas Bird Count data into eBird. 
• A few weeks ago I linked to a story about a dead carrier pigeon found in a chimney in London. It appears that the code has been cracked.
• A study suggests how climate change will affect birds in boreal forest ecosystems.
• Habitat degradation due to construction of new housing developments is as bad or worse for birds than climate change according to PRBO research.
• A vagrant American Pipit (called Buff-Bellied Pipit by the BBC) is exciting twitchers in England.
• The US Fish and Wildlife Service plans to shift Wood Storks from endangered to threatened to reflect progress in their conservation.
• SM Energy Company is paying a $22,500 fine for bird deaths at its drilling locations in the Great Plains.
• An interview explores the uncertain prospects for the Amur Falcon, which is currently threatened by market hunting.

Nature and science blogging

• Sibley Guides: Posture and shape distinguishes male and female Dark-eyed Juncos
• The Skeptical Moth: The Poodle Moth and the Problem of Cryptozoology
• The Birdist: Other Kinds of Bird Photography?

Environment and biodiversity

• Scientists are circulating an online petition asking the Chicago Field Museum not to gut its budget for research, as it currently plans to do.
• Over 156,000 gallons of oil have been recovered from the Kill Van Kull after an oil spill there last Friday. The spill occurred near an island designated as a sanctuary for nesting waterbirds.
• An Australian study founds that mistletoe, long regarded as a malignant parasite, plays a key role in maintaining biodiversity within woodland ecosystems.
• The BBC debunks the myth that people are never more than 6 feet from a rat and estimates Britain's rat population in the process.
• A pygmy right whale, long thought extinct, was discovered when it washed ashore.
• Here is an awesome photo of Mount Everest.