Posts
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| American Kestrel / Photo by Tom Koerner/USFWS |
- Given that Red Crossbills are likely to wander in northern areas this winter, eBird revised and reposted its guide to identifying and documenting Red Crossbills by call type.
- Grasshopper Sparrows constantly look for better territories, even in the midst of the breeding season. That finding grew out of an observation that color-banded individuals from a previous study would show up in unexpected locations.
- Bird specimens from the first decades of the 20th century show that there was much more carbon soot in the air than climate researchers had estimated.
- A new paper proposed a way to estimate observer expertise from eBird data, which potentially makes eBird's data more useful for conservationists.
- Geese may cluster in northern cities because of the advantages of safety from hunters and warmer conditions due to the urban heat island effect.
- Neighboring birds that respect territorial boundaries have less stress and better health.
- A photographer recorded a flock of nearly 10,000 Budgerigars around a watering hole in Australia.
- The reduction in Colombia's long civil war could bring more birding tourism to the country but could also open up biodiverse areas to logging and mining interests.
- Hurricane Maria wrecked habitat for the Puerto Rican Parrot.
- Surveys in coastal North Carolina and Georgia found Black Rails at less than 1% of potential nesting sites.
- The breeding failure of Adélie Penguins last year is leading to calls for a marine protected area to preserve their food sources.
- 10,000 Birds: Should Puerto Rico be Part of the ABA Area?
- Shorebird Science: A Migratory Superfood
- ABA Blog: Happening NOW: Red Crossbills on the Move
- Bug Eric: The Wasp Wall
- The Meadowlands Nature Blog: Don Torino’s Life in the Meadowlands: Keeping a Birding Journal
- Mia McPherson's On The Wing Photography: Red-necked Phalaropes – Migration and the Great Salt Lake
- spiderbytes: Announcing a new project: Recluse or Not?
- Backyard and Beyond: So Many Monarchs
- Boreal Songbird Initiative: Winged Wonders of the North French River
- Avian Hybrids: Mottled Mallards on the Western Gulf Coast
- Scott Pruitt announced that the EPA would repeal the Clean Power Plan, but did not give a timeline for repealing or replacing it. The endangerment finding still compels the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases. Pruitt may be trying to avoid addressing carbon emissions for as long as possible. Repealing the Clean Power Plan and ignoring climate change will have terrible consequences for humans and wildlife.
- Last week, TransCanada dropped two proposed pipelines to bring tar sands oil eastward, but several similar projects remain on the table, including Keystone XL.
- Recognizing the full history of our public lands can be a step to making their use more inclusive.
- This year over 150 environmental activists and land protectors have been assassinated.
- New gecko species have been described from caves in Myanmar.
- The invasive Spotted Lanternfly is currently eating its way through eastern Pennsylvania and may soon spread to New Jersey as well. The insect prefers Ailanthus (an invasive tree) but has been recorded feeding on over 70 species of plants.
- Small beaked whales can take very long dives.
- Cougars in urban areas expend more energy than rural ones because of their greater nocturnal activity.
- Numerous species of snails are in danger of extinction.
- Cougars are mostly solitary but interact regularly, especially when feeding near territorial boundaries.
- Deer prefer native plants and change forest plant ecology to promote invasive plants.
- The Trump administration will not interfere with dam removal on the Klamath River, which should restore historic salmon runs on the river.
