Posts
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| Yellow-rumped Warbler / Photo by Tom Koerner/USFWS |
- A new study provides genetic evidence for splitting up the Yellow-rumped Warbler into multiple species — at least three and possibly four. Such a split would restore the status that Myrtle and Audubon's Warblers had prior to the 1970s. All About Birds has a guide to the four forms.
- Meanwhile, another study found that Blue-winged and Golden-winged Warblers are genetically almost identical and that their morphological differences may be a result of dominant and recessive traits.
- The effort to save remaining populations of Spotted Owls is increasingly becoming a race to prevent Barred Owls from encroaching on existing breeding territories.
- Saltmarsh Sparrows are struggling in the face of encroachment from coastal development and climate change, and their long-term survival is uncertain.
- Geolocator tags are making it easier to map stopover habitat for migratory shorebirds that breed in the Arctic.
- Golden Eagles may be more common in open, elevated terrain with higher windspeeds.
- Bourbon, Bastards, and Birds.: Wolves Writing Rivers
- 10,000 Birds: Getting to Know Your National Wildlife Refuge: Comprehensive Conservation Plans
- On The Wing Photography: Adult and Juvenile Ring-billed Gulls
- Stokes Birding Blog: Common Nighthawks On The Move Now, How to See Them!!
- The Meadowlands Nature Blog: Greetings From Saw Mill Creek
- World Shorebirds Day: Why not counting shorebirds as you go birding anyway?
- Wanstead Birder: Red-throated Diver
- Dan Tallman’s Bird Blog: August Warblers
- This week marked the 100th anniversary of the founding of the National Park Service. As part of the centennial celebration, all national parks will have free admission this weekend, and a series of bioblitzes have taken place at national park sites throughout the year. In recent decades, parks have taken on a new role as laboratories for studying climate change. While the parks remain popular and important for conservation and historical preservation, they are chronically underfunded. Visitors are also disproportionately white.
- On Wednesday, Obama designated the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument on land donated in Maine. The tract protects forests used by boreal bird species, among others.
- Today Obama will also expand the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument off Hawaii to 582,578 square miles to protect marine biodiversity in the face of climate change.
- Wildlife officials in Washington will kill off the 11-member Profanity Peak wolf pack after a series of attacks on cattle. That represents 12% of the state's wolf population.
- The endangered mountain yellow-legged frog is threatened by the prolonged drought and intense wildfires in California.
- Another study confirms that biofuels are not carbon-neutral.
- Pikas are losing their range due to climate change.
- A Bosnian Pine in northern Greece is the oldest single-trunked tree in Europe at 1075 years old.
