Loose Feathers #374

California Quail / Photo by Jeannie Stafford (USFWS)

Birds and birding

• Regulatory enforcement by federal agencies has cut bird mortality at oil and gas operations in half over the last fifteen years, particularly at open pits filled with toxic waste water. (When Mitt Romney referenced the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in the second presidential debate, this was the sort of enforcement he was complaining about.)
• Birds use the parts of their brains analogous to ones connected with emotions in humans when they hear bird song. For female birds, hearing a male's song provokes a reaction similar to what humans experience when listening to pleasant music, while male birds have a reaction akin to fear or aggression.
• Ring-necked Pheasants are disappearing from Iowa; their population has dropped 81% below its four-decade average. The main factor is the loss of habitat to agriculture.
• Yesterday's Smithsonian picture of the day was a group of Adelie Penguins taking a dive off an iceberg.
• Endangered Black Grouse are recovering in northern England.

Science and nature blogging

• Laelaps: The Javan Rhino – And then there was one
• BHL: Things That Go Burp In the Night
• Compound Eye: Compound Eye Readers’ Best Science and Nature Photographs of 2012
• Science Friday: Pink Katydids
• Audubon Magazine Blog: Artist Paints Feathers of Birds Mentioned In Shakespeare (and Other Plumes, Too)
• Tetrapod Zoology: Life and times of the wild Axolotl
• Bug Eric: Spider Sunday: Top Spider Hoaxes, Urban Legends, and Myths

Environment and biodiversity

• Aside from a decline in underwater grasses, the Chesapeake Bay is improving in most measures of its ecological health, according to a new report from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. The bay's health is still pretty poor, though, ranking 32 on a scale of 1 to 100.
• Just in time for New Year's, a Shell drilling rig that was being towed through the Gulf of Alaska broke free and ran aground near Kodiak Island. So far there are no reports of an associated oil spill, though the rig had oil on board.
• Here is a comparison of the new biogeographic map with the one produced by Alfred Russell Wallace in 1876.
• Shark fin traders in Hong Kong are now drying shark fins on rooftops because of complaints about doing it on city sidewalks. The photos from Agence France-Presse give an idea of the massive number of sharks killed for this purpose.