Loose Feathers #434

Horned Lark. Photo by USFWS / Tony Hough.

Birds and birding

• The US Fish and Wildlife Service is coordinating a spring migration blitz to look for migrating Rusty Blackbirds. Please participate if Rusty Blackbirds occur in your area.
• The boundary between the ranges of Black-capped and Carolina Chickadees has been moving north by about 0.7 miles per year, which matches the rate of warming temperatures.
• The small genomes of birds and bats seem to be caused by the intense metabolic activity needed for flight.
• Many female songbirds sing, but most species with singing females are in the Southern Hemisphere. 
• A new bird family (Elachuridae) was proposed for the spotted wren-babbler. Here is the journal abstract.
• Scott Weidensaul has an article on this year's Snowy Owl irruption.
• Individual birds have preferences for moving left or right to fly around obstacles.
• National Geographic suggests five Bald Eagle nest cams to follow.
• One of the first White-tailed Eagles to be bred in Ireland as part of a reintroduction program was found dead from gunshot wounds.
• The American Bird Conservancy and Black Swamp Bird Observatory are fighting a window development planned on the Ohio coast of Lake Erie. The area is one of the prime migration corridors in North America, particularly for warblers and other songbirds.

Science and nature blogging

• The Loom: The Information Parasites
• ABA Blog: Cagey Birds
• The Meadowlands Nature Blog: Red-tail vs. Opossum along Disposal Road
• Not Exactly Rocket Science: The Supergene That Paints a Liar  
• Zoologic: The Creature Feature: 10 Fun Facts About the Kakapo
• Birding Is Fun!: Do Mute Swans Migrate in North America?
• Tails of Birding: A Murder of Crows
• The Smaller Majority: Tough as nails
• Wayne Maddison's blog: Ants and their lookalikes from the Dominican Republic
• Extinction Countdown: Endangered Falcon Lives Fast, Dies Young in Response to Habitat Loss

Environment and biodiversity

• Pseudoscorpions in neotropical rainforests sometimes cling to the backs of beetles to move from one location to another.
• Deserts are home to numerous threatened or endangered species.
• Fragrant conifer forests such as the boreal forest produce aerosols that can induce cloud formation and reflect sunlight.
• While Congress dithers, businesses are already starting to take climate change into consideration for long-term planning.
• This year's drought has worsened air pollution in California. Meanwhile the recent rains gave Los Angeles reservoirs a 6-billion-gallon infusion.
• Various assessments have underestimated the toxic PAH chemicals present in tars sands oil.
• The prime minister of Australia thinks that too much habitat is protected.
• The sea otter population off the coast of Alaska has finally recovered from the Exxon Valdez spill.
• The NJ legislature may move a bill to allow more prescribed burns; a similar bill was vetoed in the last session.