Posts
 |
| Sanderlings / Photo by Bill Buchanan (USFWS) |
- The evolution of more diverse melanosomes (which create more colorful plumage, among other things) may have been a precondition for the evolution of flight.
- A 50-year project has documented the unique facial patterns of Bewick's Swans.
- New York City Audubon wants to restore the West Pond at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge as a freshwater pond for migratory birds.
- Snowy Owls have been tracked hunting on the ice that covers Lake Erie. Presumably they are preying on sea ducks that gather in gaps in the ice.
- Tufted Puffin populations in the Pacific Northwest have declined 90% in the last 30 years.
- Great Tits can observe and remember where other birds cache food.
- Albania has instituted a two-year moratorium on hunting birds and mammals to enact more effective hunting regulations and give wildlife populations a chance to recover.
- Two endangered Whooping Cranes were shot in Louisiana last week.
- In better news, Wisdom the Laysan Albatross hatched another chick at age 63. She is the oldest known wild bird.
- The Yellow-eyed Penguin forages by following lines carved in the seafloor by fishing boats.
- Myrmecos: On The Other Hand, Bumble Bees Are In Trouble
- Charismatic Minifauna: I Promise: Spiders are Not Trying to Kill You.
- Bird Ecology Study Group: Yellow-vented Bulbul caught in a spider’s web
- Lyman Entomological Museum: Look up, way up: beetles and flies in the tree tops
- 10,000 Birds: What is a Nictitating Membrane?
- The Rattling Crow: The scary bright eyes of the Jackdaw
- Extinction Countdown: Manumea Found: Strange Bird Seen Breeding for the First Time in a Decade
- Birding Dude: The Conundrum of Identifying Sharp-tailed Sparrows to Subspecies in the Field
- OnEarth Magazine explains the problems with the USFWS's decision to move forward with delisting gray wolves. Among other things, the USFWS considers eastern wolves to be a separate species (something few scientists outside the USFWS agree with) and therefore not part of the gray wolf's historic range. Another analysis is here.
- The scientist who found that atrazine harms amphibians faced a relentless smear campaign from the herbicide's manufacturer, on a scale similar to what climate scientists face.
- The migration of whales off of California may set a new record this month.
- A study estimates that the mass extinction at the end of the Permian occurred in just 60,000 years.
- There may be a link between zebra mussel activity and algae blooms because the invasive mussels add nutrients to the water column.
- Charles Darwin was born 205 years ago this week. In honor of that occasion a beetle that he collected was finally identified as belonging to a new genus and species in a paper published this week.
- New Jersey may lose funding for trail maintenance because the DEP has been tardy in administering the funds.
- Like eastern states, Michigan faces the problem that much of its air and water pollution comes from outside the state.
- North Carolina intervened to protect Duke Energy from water pollution lawsuits.
- A new plant discovered in the Andes supports 40-50 insect species.
- California's drought might be the worst in several centuries.
- Next week is the 20th anniversary of an executive order that required federal agencies to account for effects on people of color when they issue regulations, a major goal of the environmental justice movement.
- Maryland wants to enact a tax on poultry farms to help pay for Chesapeake Bay cleanup. Poultry farms are a major contributor to nutrient runoff in the Chesapeake watershed.
- Getting action to curb ocean acidification seems unlikely in the near term, but some experimental projects might make a small improvement.
- Warm temperatures in Sochi this week are a reminder that winter sports will soon face a dearth of reliable ice and snowpacks. Of the 19 cities to host the Winter Olympics, only 10 would likely have a suitable climate to host them by 2050, and only 6 by 2100.
- The extinction of large mammals at the end of the last Ice Age may be linked to large-scale vegetation changes that were driven by climate change.
- While the farm bill is terrible in many respects, the latest version includes improvements in funding for conservation programs.
- The Ivanpah desert solar plant officially opened this week.
- Satellite technology can be used to identify and count individual whales.
