Posts
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| Least Sandpiper / Photo by Bill Thompson/USFWS |
- This week the US Fish and Wildlife Service decided against listing the Greater Sage-Grouse under the Endangered Species Act. The agency cited voluntary measures to protect the species in its decision and proclaimed it as a win for wildlife. However, there are reasons to be skeptical of the spin.
- Noah Strycker set a new world big year record with a Sri Lanka Frogmouth. So far he has seen 4452 bird species this year, with another three months to go.
- EBird will soon release a feature for uploading images and audio to checklists.
- Avian genetic diversity is higher in the winter than in the summer in California's Central Valley.
- Wildlife groups want the California Spotted Owl to receive protection under the Endangered Species Act.
- Northern Bald Ibis chicks were released in Spain as part of a reintroduction program.
- Backyard bird feeders have encouraged more Blackcaps to spend the winter in the U.K.
- Geolocators are being used to learn the migration routes and stopover habitats of Prothonotary Warbler populations.
- Conservationists are hand-rearing endangered Florida Grasshopper Sparrow chicks from nests that were likely to fail to give them a better chance at survival.
- A conservation program combining data from eBird with imagery from Landsat identified rice fields in California that could be flooded to create temporary wetlands for shorebirds.
- Blue-footed Boobies dirty their eggs to hide them from predators.
- Millions of songbirds migrate at night during spring and fall.
- Nemesis Bird: Night Flight Call primer
- Extinction Countdown: Sexually Deceptive Orchid Seeks Specialty Pollinator
- Warblers and rumors of warblers: Connecticut Warbler!
- View from the Cape: Zone-tailed Hawk - AGAIN!!!
- Anything Larus: Banded Herring Gull: 29 Years Old
- ABA Blog: Open Mic: The Joys of Patch Birding
- Last weekend I participated in the BioBlitz at Sandy Hook. The preliminary total is 271 living species. The total will probably rise as more specimens are identified.
- The US Fish and Wildlife Service is considering four species for listing under the Endangered Species Act.
- The Volkswagen case shows the need for better regulation of the software that runs everyday objects.
- China's use of fossil fuels has often been used as an excuse for opposing greenhouse gas limits in the U.S., but now China is pledging to institute a cap-and-trade program to reduce emissions.
- Hillary Clinton finally announced her opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline.
- Pope Francis called for action against climate change in a speech at the White House.
- Proximity and exposure to toxic pollutants is a major inequality between racial and economic groups in the U.S., and an egregious example can be found in DC's Brentwood neighborhood.
- Some western wildfires have been so intense that burned forests are not recovering as they normally would.
- Here is a list of cities ranked according to their heat island effects.
- A new tree of life combines phylogenetic data for 2.3 million species.
- Bumblebees in the Rocky Mountains now have shorter tongues than they did 40 years ago, an adaptation driven by climate change.
