Posts
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| Brewer's Sparrow / Photo by Tom Koerner/USFWS |
- A new model evaluates whether extinct birds could fly by the proportions of their wing and leg bones.
- Radar studies show a steep decline of 78% for Hawaiian Petrels and 94% for Newell's Shearwaters on Kauai in Hawaii over the past 20 years. Threats include invasive species introduced after Hurricane Iniki, collisions with powerlines, and light pollution.
- The proposed federal budget would cut funding for conservation programs designed to keep the Greater Sage-Grouse from listing under the Endangered Species Act.
- In California, conservationists are testing artificial islands that Ridgway's Rails can use as nesting sites as sea level rise reduces coastal wetlands.
- Lesser Kestrels adapt their flight styles while foraging to use weather conditions as efficiently as possible.
- Ravens can remember people who tricked them into an unfair exchange.
- While Emperor Penguins can shift their breeding colonies to adapt to changing conditions, it is unlikely to keep their populations from plummeting over the long term in the face of climate change.
- A new research project is trying to map the migration routes of different populations of Mourning Warblers through crowdsourced audio recordings.
- Corvid Research: 5 reasons to leave baby crows alone
- Union Bay Watch: Playing With Fire
- The Meadowlands Nature Blog: Don Torino’s Life in the Meadowlands: Birds Eagerly Await Juneberries
- Splendour Awaits: Mating Long-lipped Tiger Beetles
- Backyard and Beyond: Pale Beauty
- Bird Ecology Study Group: Crane Flies in mating ritual
- ABA Blog: Hawk “Kettle” Finally makes the Dictionary
- The Whitebark Pine is likely to go extinct because of a combination of threats (including invasive species, climate change, and fire suppression), but so far it has not been listed as endangered because of politics and funding.
- Another tree species threatened by climate change is the Atlantic White Cedar, which struggling to survive in coastal wetlands made more brackish by sea level rise.
- Genetic analysis shows that the extinct Palaeoloxodon antiquus is more closely related to the African Forest Elephant than the latter is to the African Savanna Elephant. This should help conservation efforts since it provides additional evidence that the forest and savanna elephants are separate species.
- Beavers have been documented on the tundra as woody plants advance northward.
- NJ DEP has revised its rules for development near wetlands in ways that will probably result in the loss of more wetlands.
