Loose Feathers #415

California Quail / USFWS Photo

Birds and birding

• Two dead California Condors were recently found in water tanks used for fighting forest fires. One found near the Tehachapi Mountains was one of the few condors hatched and reared in the wild. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Kern County Fire Department are working to prevent future condor deaths at the tanks.
• Here is a tongue-in-cheek essay about why a zombie apocalypse would be good for condor conservation.
• A citizen science project is tracking bird collisions at windows.
• The Ashy Storm-Petrel, a rare seabird found in the Pacific, was denied federal endangered species protection. 
• North American birders will be familiar with a Red Knot subspecies (Calidris canutus rufa) that migrates along the Atlantic coast. Another Red Knot subspecies, Calidris canutus piersmai, breeds in Siberia, migrates through China, and winters in Australia. Like the North American subspecies, C.c. piersmai faces threats to its migratory stopover sites, in this case from coastal development.
• Since invasive rats were exterminated from Rat Island in Alaska, seabirds have begun to breed there again. The island, which is part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, has been renamed Hawadax Island, a name chosen by the local Unangan people.
• An international agreement has banned ships from dumping PIB, the chemical responsible for killing and injuring numerous birds in the English Channel.
• If you are setting up outdoor Halloween decorations, be careful of how they might affect birds.
• Meanwhile, 30 dead birds were found around the Ivanpah solar installation; half of them had burn injuries. 
• Scientists have discovered some genes that govern the molecular clock of the Common Buzzard. A molecular clock is an internal mechanism that governs things like circadian rhythm and migratory timing.
• A newspaper article from 100 years ago records the appearance of a white starling.
• A new condor cam has a live feed of a condor feeding area in central California.

Science and nature blogging

• The Digiscoper: The Last Sparrow!
• The Freiday Bird Blog: Fri-D: The Stringer Within 
• Nemesis Bird: Lincoln's Sparrow vs. Song Sparrow - PSU Fall Banding
• Earbirding: The Four Basic Song Patterns 
• Bird Ecology Study Group: Sex and the Birds: 1. Copulation 
• Bug Eric: Brown Recluse
• Charismatic Minifauna: You Are Within 6 Feet of a Spider Right Now 
• Not Exactly Rocket Science: Of 70,000 Crustacean Species, Here’s The First Venomous One 
• Extinction Countdown: Sunday Species Snapshot: Tasmanian Devil
• Why Evolution Is True: Where did ants (and their social behavior) come from?
• John Hawks Weblog: The new skull from Dmanisi
• The Loom: Nature’s Double Con

Environment and biodiversity

• An Israeli study of ancient pollen points to climate change, and prolonged drought in particular, as the precipitating factor in the collapse of Late Bronze Age civilizations.
• Chicago has streamlined the process for rooftop solar installations.
• A train carrying oil and propane derailed in Alberta, and several cars caught fire. Unlike at Lac-Mégantic, no one was killed. 
• In general, moving shale oil across the tundra is a risky business.
• Purple loosestrife is very adaptable to different climates, which may be a key to its invasive potential.
• Here is a primer on hoodoos, the type of formation knocked over by a Boy Scout leader in Utah.
• A section of the Henry Hudson Trail in Monmouth County is set to reopen.

Loose Feathers #414

Hermit Thrush / Photo credit: Bill Thompson/USFWS

Birds and birding

• With the end of the shutdown, national parks and other federal lands are opening to the public. On the first day that Forsythe NWR reopened, a birder found a Gray Kingbird there.
• Volunteer birders, including Nicholas Lund of The Birdist, are collecting dead birds outside buildings in DC to determine which buildings kill the most birds.
• The recent listing proposal for Red Knots should give the species extra protections, but endangered species laws themselves face threats at both the state and federal levels.
• Scientists in Ecuador found that playback of bird songs may harm birds by causing them to expend more energy repelling the presumed intruder.
• When seen by other birds, Common Cuckoos closely resemble birds of prey like the Sparrowhawk. An interesting finding is that this mimicry seems to be highly localized: cuckoos mimic the hawks that are in their immediate geographical area.
• Volunteers count migrating hawks at the Green Valley Forest Preserve's hawk watch in Illinois.
• BirdWatching Daily tells why seawatching is as important as hawk watching for conservation.
• The man who raped a birder in Central Park got a 30-year sentence.
• Swiss officials caught a man smuggling the eggs of rare parrots in his underwear.

Science and nature blogging

• Nemesis Bird: Lincoln’s Sparrow vs. Song Sparrow – PSU Fall Banding
• 10,000 Birds: Four wings good two wings better? 
• The Corvid Blog: I Am Not A Baby Crow! 
• Extinction Countdown: Century-Old Egg Answers Mystery about Critically Endangered Bird
• The Freiday Bird Blog: Watching a Rare Bird Disappear
• Myrmecos: How Field Naturalists Die 
• Bug Eric: Woodlouse Hunter
• ReWild: California is First State to Ban Lead Ammo in Hunters' Guns

Environment and biodiversity

• Genetic research shows that ants and bees most likely evolved from mud dauber wasps. In this view, the building of nest structures would have evolved first and from there other species evolved with more complex social arrangements.
• National parks lost a lot of revenue from admission fees and other sources during the shutdown.
• A class at Richard Stockton College is testing pollutants in Barnegat Bay to determine their sources.
• A new blog will cover wildlife conservation in California.
• Princeton, New Jersey, decided to conduct further studies on the local coyote population before decided whether to pursue a cull.
• New Jersey has a new senator, Cory Booker, who is currently mayor of the state's largest city. Grist puts Booker's environmental record into the context of his predecessor's and of Newark's long history of environmental advocacy.

Loose Feathers #413

Cedar Waxwing / Photo by Dave Menke (USFWS)

Birds and birding

• Some songbirds, like Great Tits and Blue Tits, search for food sources in the morning but wait until late afternoon to do most of their eating. This strategy seems to reduce their risk of being eaten by hawks during the day.
• Shifts in melatonin production may make urban birds respond to artificial lights as if they were an earlier dawn.
• Like Ivanpah, the Genesis Solar Project is causing bird deaths. Over 60 dead birds were found there in August, including 18 that are usually found in wetland habitats rather than the plant's desert location.
• New Caledonian Crows know how to use tools without having to guess.
• The autumn population of Barnacle Geese tripled in the eastern Gulf of Finland.
• A fossil bird from the Cretaceous had two tails.
• Dodos may have survived a few decades longer than generally thought.

Science and nature blogging

• Maniraptora: Journal Club: Butterbutt biology: warblers, migration and mitochondria
• Not Exactly Rocket Science: Three Swifts Probably Flew Non-Stop For 200 Days
• Myrmecos: How to recognize Apoidea
• Native Plant Wildlife Garden: Bumble Bee Life Cycle
• South Jersey Butterfly B/Log: One state, one year: 101 species
• The Corvid Blog: Mariana Crow
• Bug Eric: The Emerald Ash Borer Invades Colorado
• The Freiday Bird Blog: Fri-D: Molting Shorebirds
• Bird Ecology Study Group: A closer look at a juvenile male Emerald Dove

Environment and biodiversity

• Thanks to the shutdown, it looks like American scientists will not get to Antarctica in time for the spring research season. As the shutdown drags on, it is likely to reduce the National Weather Service's ability to predict upcoming storms.
• A misconception that climate change has slowed down has dominated reporting on the recent IPCC report.
• New Jersey's Oyster Creek nuclear plant had to shut down a day after it restarted.
• While IPCC reports include climate records for much of the world, the IPCC has had trouble getting reliable information on the state of glaciers in the Himalayas.

Loose Feathers #412

Merlin / Photo by me

Birds and birding

• Just before the government shutdown, the US Fish and Wildlife Service finally proposed the rufa subspecies of Red Knot as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Here is a reaction from the American Bird Conservancy. Here are reactions from some scientists involved in Red Knot conservation. Here is some background on the Red Knot's decline.
• More details have come out about the burned birds at the massive Ivanpah solar installation.
• Two new parcels added to Brazil's Serra Bonita Reserve will provide protection for six rare bird species. 
• About 500 ducks are being rescued and rehabilitated after an oil spill in Wales.
• A report from Canada has similar results to reports by the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and the US Fish and Wildlife Service on the effects of feral and outdoor cats on bird mortality.
• Analysis of fossilized feces gives clues about the habitat preferences of extinct moa species.
• A proposed wind farm in the Shetlands may not be approved because of concerns about a rare wader. Apparently the bird in question is the Whimbrel; 95% of its breeding population in the UK nests in the Shetlands.
• Birds exposed to urban light pollution produce lower levels of melatonin, a chemical that regulates the sleep cycle.

Science and nature blogging

• Laelaps: “Lake That Turns Animals to Stone” Not so Deadly as Photos Suggest
• Myrmecos: Genomic data reveal that ants and bees are close relatives
• All About Birds: Infidelity in Australian Bird May Be the Secret Keeping a Species Together
• 10,000 Birds: The Problem with Eagles
• Wild New Jersey: The Pine Barrens around Helmetta No. 25: Back in the woods
• The Rattling Crow: Canada Geese taking off decisions
• Outside My Window: Starling Story Problem 
• Earbirding: The Five Basic Pitch Patterns
• View from the Cape: "How do you know it's a Parasitic Jaeger?"

Environment and biodiversity

• Last week the IPCC published its latest report on climate change. Here is analysis by Weather Underground. Here is analysis by a climate scientist. Past predictions have held up well, despite claims to the contrary. BirdLife calls for an aggressive response to climate change, which threatens many bird species.
• Because of the federal shutdown, all national parks are closed, as are national wildlife refuges. (Take action!) It may still be possible to visit some public lands managed by the Forest Service and BLM. The National Eagle Repository is shut down. At her new home at Wired Science, Bug Girl reviews the effects of the shutdown on conservation and science. A former head of the USGS argues that a prolonged shutdown will affect all scientists. The government shutdown also could be very troublesome for some renewable energy projects that are waiting for approval.
• A new leak of radioactive water at Fukushima was caused by a worker error.
• Meanwhile, a reactor in Sweden had to be shut down because jellyfish clogged its water intake.