Loose Feathers #440

Great Blue Heron / Photo by Frank Miles (USFWS)

Birds and birding

• The Nature Conservancy is using eBird data to identify important shorebird stopover habitat in California so that it can pay farmers in the most important places to keep their fields flooded during migration.
• Lingering Snowy Owls in Massachusetts are not getting along well with returning Osprey.
• A pair of Peregrine Falcons is breeding in Jersey City once again, and the falcon nest cam will be active to record it.
• An especially long-lived Osprey in Scotland laid its 69th egg this spring.

Science and nature blogging

• Extinction Countdown: Bat-Killing Fungus Now Found in 25 U.S. States
• 10,000 Birds: Seeking Out Unwelcome Guests
• Prairie Ice: Godzilla in a Feather Boa - Greater Sage-Grouse 
• The Rattling Crow: Great tit holding seed
• Laelaps: Tar Pits Bees Connect California’s Past to the Present

Environment and biodiversity

• The cleanup operation in Louisiana is finally winding down four year after BP's Deepwater Horizon oil spill. However, there are still a lot of lingering environmental problems, including the reduction of beneficial insect populations in Louisiana's marshes.
• Hundreds of environmental activists have been killed over the past decade, especially in Latin America.
• Nutrient rich forests absorb and sequester more carbon than forests on nutrient poor soils.
• There is a pretty severe drought in Colombia right now.
• Beewolves carry bacteria that help protect them against other threats.
• Duke Farms in New Jersey has made some improvements for visitor safety.