Posts
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| American Coot / Photo by Tom Koerner/USFWS |
- Tomorrow (October 6) is eBird's October Big Day. The date was chosen to correspond with spring in the southern hemisphere and fall migration in the northern hemisphere.
- Veeries cut their breeding season short early in years that have intense hurricane seasons. Somehow the birds are able to predict the severity of the season months in advance.
- A new fossil from the Cretaceous shows a bird-like dinosaur that had a short tail but lacked some of the shoulder adaptations that modern birds have for powered flight.
- Here is a guide to Evening Grosbeak call types.
- Blue Tits living in cities lay larger eggs than one in natural areas, possibly because of their diet.
- House Sparrows evolved as a separate species around the same time as the beginnings of human agriculture, with genetic traits that allowed them to digest grains.
- Swift Parrots shift their breeding sites depending on where nectar from flowering trees is most abundant.
- Houston has thriving colonies of Monk Parakeets, which are native to South America.
- A study found that the personalities of Great Tits influence how they form pair bonds.
- Two winters ago, 17 White-tailed Sea-Eagles were killed by avian influenza, which is the first documentation of that disease in that species.
- The new Discovery Center in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park provides examples of how to make glass less deadly for birds.
- Some moths drink the tears of sleeping birds.
- Ridgway's Rails were released at a preserved marsh on Mission Bay to reintroduce the species to potential breeding habitat.
- Vermont Center for Ecostudies: Fox Sparrows: A Boreal Bird on the Move
- Feathered Photography: Eight Of My Favorite Rough-legged Hawk Photos
- Elev. 401: A weed by any other name…
- MaghrebOrnitho: Crossbills in North Africa and the Balearics are the most divergent of all Western Palearctic crossbills
- The Artful Amoeba: Florida Oaks Host Exciting Parasite-on-Parasite Action
- Avian Hybrids: What selection pressure is acting on hybrids between Audubon’s and Myrtle Warbler?
- Kelly Krechmer: Observing and Identifying Pollinators with iNaturalist
- Birding New Jersey: Not Just Ani Sugarbird
- Observations of the Elwha River since two dams were removed two years ago will provide guidance for future dam removals. Salmon have started to return as expected, and there have been a host of other changes around the river's watershed.
- Secondary forests in the tropics are important for biodiversity and should be allowed to mature.
- Island Foxes have made a comeback on California's Channel Islands; new research is testing whether they have enough genetic diversity.
- A 442-acre former cranberry farm will be preserved and opened to the public in the New Jersey Pinelands.
- Surveys in the southern US have so far failed to find the habitat used by Blacklegged Tick nymphs.
- For the past few years, October has been celebrated as Arachtober as a way to demystify spiders and their relatives. To participate, see the Arachtober group on Flickr or follow the #Arachtober tag on Twitter.
- Climate change will impose tremendous costs on the U.S., much higher than previous estimates.
- Environmentalists won some key legal rulings in the fight to save Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments. In particular, the Trump administration will need to inform them of any development plans, and the trial will stay in DC rather than Utah.
- This week the Trump administration announced that they would weaken regulations for both mercury emissions and radiation exposure, as well as safety rules designed to prevent another disaster like the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill.
- The administration also argues that the world will warm 4°C by 2100 and make any greenhouse gas emissions cuts useless.
- In better news, the Obama administration's Waters of the U.S. rule finally went into force when a judge blocked the Trump administration's attempt to revoke it. The rule protects streams and wetlands from development.
- Climate change is likely to increase the severity of air pollution, especially in the eastern U.S.
- The New Jersey state legislature is working on a bill to ban plastic bags, plastic straws, and styrofoam containers. It would become the broadest plastics ban in the country if it passes.
- The EPA will finally begin cleaning up Berry's Creek in the New Jersey Meadowlands, which has one of highest concentrations of mercury and other contaminants in the world. Much of the waste came from an industrial site that was first designated as a Superfund site in 1984, but the cleanup has been plagued by delays.
- The Supreme Court's new term began with arguments over the critical habitat designation for the dusky gopher frog.
- Most of the eastern US experienced record-breaking overnight temperatures during the month of September.
