Posts
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| Black-billed Magpie / Photo by Ann Hough (USFWS) |
- Fifteen new bird species from the Amazon are being published in a special volume of Handbook of the Birds of the World. (I think this discovery may have been covered in previous articles.)
- An injured fledgling hawk from the Franklin Institute nest in Philadelphia has recovered with the help of a wildlife rescue center and has been released back into the wild.
- The North Jersey Record has a profile of Charlie Mayhood, a long-time New Jersey birder who died recently.
- Research with Whooping Cranes suggests that younger birds migrate more successfully when they follow older birds, and the same may apply to breeding behavior as well.
- Waterfowl are dying of avian botulism at Tule Lake NWR because of a prolonged drought affecting the Klamath Basin. Unlike other refuges in the region, Tule Lake's wetlands stay wet during droughts, so it attracts waterbirds from all over the region.
- Residents in the Polish town of Zywkowo have worked to improve habitat for White Storks, which nest on rooftops and nesting platforms. The town gets conservation funding from the EU and economic benefits from ecotourism.
- There is a new eBird portal for Central America. (Press release here.)
- A New Jersey man was arrested for shooting hawks.
- Nemesis Bird: The Ultimate Guide to Migration Online
- Tales From A Wandering Albatross: The Cuteness Scale: A Poll
- Dynamic Ecology: In Praise of Boring, Local Field Sites
- Myrmecos: Velvet Ants Are Not Ant Mimics
- Birding New Jersey: Point Breeze
- Not Exactly Rocket Science: The Amazing Story of a Mammal Virus That Became a Bird One
- Extinction Countdown: Hellbender Head Start: Raising Giant Salamanders in the Bronx
- SciAm Guest Blog: A Feast of Cicadas
- Anole Annals: Anole Eats Morpho Butterfly
- Significant Figures: Peak Water in the American West
- Anything Larus: Variation in Ring-billed Gull Tail Bands
- The first wolf to be recorded in Kentucky in 150 years was shot by a hunter who says he thought it was a coyote.
- When Wisconsin began its wolf hunt last year, it was presented as a way to reduce tensions over the presence of wolves in the state; instead, it has increased tensions even though 117 wolves were killed.
- Ocean acidification could create additional warming by reducing cloud formation.
- South Jersey Gas Co. wants to build a natural gas pipeline through the Pine Barrens as part of a project to convert the coal-fired power plant at Beesley Point on the Great Egg Harbor River. While converting the plant would reduce air pollution, running the pipeline through the Pinelands could threaten protected wetlands.
- Developers want to build a resort two miles from the Grand Canyon; the big sticking point is where the resort's water will come from.
- The massive Rim Fire near Yosemite National Park in California has been made worse by drought; the region received a record low amount of precipitation during the first half of this year. Despite the size and intensity of the fire, the Giant Sequoias in the area will probably survive it.
- The controversial badger cull is underway in the United Kingdom.
- Scientists have mapped the global distribution of the whale shark, the world's largest shark.
- The mass mortality of dolphins on the Atlantic Coast is probably linked to morbillivirus, but other contributing factors have not been ruled out.
- New state regulations in New Mexico would create a loophole for mining companies to pollute groundwater.
- Geologists discovered a massive canyon under an ice sheet in Greenland.
- Maryland backed off regulations to reduce nutrient runoff from chicken manure.
- A study found that wind turbines have a very small effect on property values within a half mile of a wind development but none on property values in the ten miles beyond that.
