Posts
 |
| Sage Thrasher / Photo by Tom Koerner/USFWS |
- A new study suggests that the temperature stability in tropical climates (as opposed to temperate ones) encourages a greater diversity of bird species. It is possible that a more stable climate makes it possible for birds to be highly specialized.
- Ireland is slowly losing its Eurasian Curlews, a species much celebrated in Irish literature and folklore.
- A new study suggests that the extinct Hunter Island Penguin, described from bones in 1983, was actually a composite of three different living species and thus never really existed.
- An ornithologist writes that learning the name of a species and how to identify it is the first step to a deeper appreciation of nature.
- A Bullock's Oriole that was captured two years ago in Ottawa has been rehabilitated and will be flown to British Columbia for release.
- EBird is doing its taxonomic update for 2017 this week, and lists may seem odd while it is in progress.
- Birding is rising in popularity among millennials.
- A new study finds that Reed Warblers can sense magnetic declination, which allows for east-west as well as north-south navigation.
- awkward botany: Summer of Weeds: Flower of an Hour
- British Ornithologists' Union Blog: How many species is the Pectoral Sparrow?
- Auk & Condor Updates Blog: Not Too Many Sperm, Not Too Few
- BugBlog: Pollen gathering spiders
- 10,000 Birds: Will Environmental Laws Prevent a Wall Through Santa Ana NWR?
- During Trump's bizarre press conference on Tuesday, he signed an executive order that included a rule overturning an Obama-era rule that planning for infrastructure on flood-prone properties must take account of sea level rise. The rule change contradicts how he has treated his own properties.
- The EPA will also end restrictions on water pollution from coal-fired power plants.
- A great deal remains unknown about frog reproduction, but what is known suggests great variation among frog species.
- If hunting of Grizzly Bears is allowed in the Yellowstone area this year, up to 20 bears could be killed in the area immediately around the park. A critical question is whether the Yellowstone bears will ever expand their range enough to reconnect with populations in the northern Rocky Mountains.
- An Exxon Mobil refinery in Beaumont, Texas, is a good example of how toxic industries are often sited near poor or minority neighborhoods.
- Young conservationists are being driven out of the profession by a lack of stable paid work.
- Several business coalitions are urging Ryan Zinke not to reduce or rescind national monument designations since the monuments provide an economic boost.
- A federal pollinator task force is considering using I-35 as a corridor for prairie restoration to provide habitat for migrating Monarchs.
- While New Jersey's Pinelands region is protected, its Kirkwood-Cohansey Aquifer still faces threats from development and climate change.
- The Keystone XL pipeline now awaits a decision by Nebraska regulators, but a recent hearing did not allow for testimony about its most important problems, such as safety and environmental effects.
- This week, New Jersey removed a dam along the Millstone River to increase migratory fish habitat.
