Posts
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| Northern Harrier / Photo by Tom Koerner/@USFWS |
- The number of rufa Red Knots wintering at Tierra del Fuego fell by 25% last winter and set a new low, probably because of food shortages in Delaware Bay in May 2017.
- Eliminating invasive rats from islands is good for nesting seabirds and also for the health and diversity of coral reefs offshore.
- Much like the Great Auk, the Spectacled Cormorant was driven to extinction by hunting in the early 19th century. New evidence, in the form of fossils from the Pleistocene, has emerged that its range was larger than 19th-century naturalists documented.
- Urban gulls are better at stealing food than rural ones. This study concerned stealing food from other gulls, but it probably applies to stealing from other sources as well.
- Having the right plants is important for habitat-specific bird species, but other factors like soil and topography matter as well.
- Birds will likely die in open oil pits because the Trump administration weakened enforcement of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Open oil pits resemble water from the air so they attract birds flying overhead.
- Hummingbirds are now found only in the Americas, but they appear to have their origins in Eurasia.
- Precipitation is an important factor for where some tyrant flycatchers winter.
- The world's insectivorous songbirds consume as much energy in a year as the city of New York.
- Recent columns by Jim Wright feature the best known and lesser known birding spots along the Jersey Shore.
- Native birds like the Kākā are doing well in Wellington thanks to conservation efforts, including a trapping campaign targeting invasive predators.
- 10,000 Birds: eBirding National Wildlife Refuges
- awkward botany: Idaho’s Native Milkweeds
- Ray Cannon's nature notes: Tiger beetles: colour for a purpose
- spiderbytes: Spider sex and silk: From mating threads and bridal veils to nuptial gifts and silk-lined chambers
- Mia McPherson's On The Wing Photography: Photographic Frustrations – Red-naped Sapsuckers in the Targhee National Forest
- Shorebird Science: Early season challenges at the Canning River shorebird camp
- Lynn Barber's Alaska Big Year – and Beyond: July 12 – Nome – Kougarok Road (July 6)
- Brett Kavanaugh, the US Supreme Court nominee, is hostile to using the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gases and has opposed other environmental regulations.
- Ireland will become the first country to divest from fossil fuels, likely within five years.
- Electric utilities have asked the EPA to leave the Obama administration's mercury air pollution standards in place since most plants have already complied with them.
- The risk of Lyme disease is higher in fragmented eastern forests with a high number of rodents and a low numbers of mesopredators.
- Orcas that breed in the Pacific Northwest face a real threat of extinction.
- Reducing plastic waste in the oceans needs to start with how plastic items are designed and produced.
- For wolves to thrive, people need to learn more about them and accept that some spaces should be wild. A philosopher talks about the ethics of wolf conservation.
- National parks in the U.S. are facing a budget crunch as visitation increases but funding for staffing and maintenance lags behind.
- A study of marine species in the Bering Sea found that most lagged behind in adjusting their ranges to warmer waters.
- Wildlife corridors will be necessary for species to shift their ranges on land, and a current project is mapping where they might be.
- A reporter in New Jersey was indicted for poaching and smuggling Diamondback Terrapins.
- The Small Whorled Pogonia, a rare orchid, seems like it might be making a comeback in New Jersey after several recent sightings.
