Posts
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| Bald Eagles nesting at John Heinz NWR / Photo by Bill Buchanan/USFWS |
- The Tricolored Blackbird population in California has dropped from 400,000 birds in 2008 to 258,000 in 2011.
- The IUCN released an update to its Red List this week. The total species list is now up to 70,294; 20,934 of those are threatened with extinction, including many long-lived species of trees. In conjunction with the IUCN Red List update, BirdLife released a report on the State of the World's Birds (pdf). About 13% of the world's bird species are threatened.
- Likewise, the US Fish and Wildlife Service released its own State of the Birds report focusing on the role of private land in bird conservation.
- The annual Canada Goose roundup is taking place in Jamaica Bay; this year the National Park Service hopes to kill 500 geese. The geese are being killed to keep them from flying into airplanes landing or taking off at JFK and La Guardia.
- A naturalist found and documented a nocturnal parrot called Pezoporus occidentalis in a remote desert location in Australia. Sightings of this species are very rare, and at times it has been feared extinct.
- A British egg collector stole 50 eggs from a single nesting colony of Least Terns in Crimdon, England.
- British ornithologists have attached geolocators to Common Nightingales to learn more about why the species is in decline.
- Hummingbirds' wings flex and change shape as they hover.
- Here is how to avoid and survive being attacked by a gull defending its territory.
- A racing pigeon flew from the island of Hokkaido in Japan to Vancouver Island in Canada.
- Not Exactly Rocket Science: Scientist Spills Water, Discovers Self-Cleaning Bird Egg
- Outside My Window: What Do Birds Think Of Fireworks?
- 10,000 Birds: Ringing in the new breeding season with Red Knots
- Compound Eye: The Desert is not "Nowhere"
- PhotoNaturalist: 7 Tips For Photographing Butterflies
- Martin's Moths: A hitchhiker's guide to the moth-ery
- Radioactive material left over from nuclear bomb testing in the 1940s through 1960s can help to identify poached ivory.
- The Brood II periodical cicada emergence is winding down.
- According to a recent study, hawkmoths use ultrasound produced from their genitals to jam bats' sonar.
- The nomination of Gina McCarthy to head the EPA has been held up, but it looks like she will be confirmed.
- A proposal to allow commercial logging in state forests has created some odd alliances among New Jersey's environmental groups.
- Artists created a very lifelike sculpture of a beached whale in Greenwich, England, to call attention to the city's connection to the sea.
- A new species of long-horned beetle was identified in China.
- A beetle just missed getting squashed by a serve at Wimbledon.
- People held a vigil to mourn the 50,000 bumble bees killed by pesticide in an Oregon parking lot.
- Personal records of scientific observations can have historical interest; thanks to a math professor who tracked the weather every day, we know exactly what the weather was at the Battle of Gettysburg.
