Loose Feathers #467

Greater Sage-Grouse / Photo by Tom Koerner (USFWS)

Birds and birding

• Swainson's Warblers have been documented nesting in short-rotation pine plantations, which is not the habitat where the species is normally found but which offers a steady supply of breeding habitat.
• Superb Fairy-wren embryos learn calls from their parents while they are still in the egg.
• Birds struggle to reproduce successfully in noisy environments because communication is more difficult.
• A proposed wind turbine project on the north slope of the San Bernardino Mountains has been withdrawn, in part because of the likely impact on protected raptors.

Science and nature blogging

• ABA Blog: Help Prevent Bird Window Collisions with The Bird and Windows Project
• The Digiscoper: Late October Sparrows
• The Rattling Crow: Why do we feed garden birds?
• Not Exactly Rocket Science: The Early Chimp Gets The Fig
• The Birdist: Do's and Don'ts of Leading A Good Bird Walk 
• Birding New Jersey!: The Freckled Heron of Sandy Hook

Environment and biodiversity

• A new species of leopard frog was described from New York City and northern New Jersey. It occurs between the ranges of the Northern and Southern Leopard Frogs, and its range appears not to overlap with either one. The Atlantic Coast Leopard Frog (Rana kauffeldi) is described in the journal PLoS ONE.
• New York City is not the only city with cryptic amphibian species. An urban-dwelling frog in Kochi, India, was among seven new frogs documented in India and Sri Lanka.
• The Sacramento River Delta no longer functions as a delta due to the decline of freshwater emergent wetlands and other historic habitats.
• Researchers are mapping the New Jersey coast to learn more about where and why areas flooded during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The project will eventually map the entire US coast and be used to predict effects from future storms.
• While many waterways have improved, New Jersey has had trouble meeting federal clean water standards.
• The former Iron Curtain is being turned into a greenbelt running through northern and central Europe.
• Much speculation has surrounded the fate of the millions of barrels of oil that spilled in the months after the Deepwater Horizon explosion. A recent study suggests that much of it is lying on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.
• Columbia Glacier in Alaska is retreating faster than expected.
• A Gray Wolf was spotted on the north rim of the Grand Canyon for the first time since the early 20th century.