Posts
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| Northern Hawk Owl / Photo by Lisa Hupp/USFWS |
- Christmas Bird Counts start this weekend. Here is a guide to submitting CBC data to eBird. Here is a look at trends in CBC results.
- Changing winds due to climate change may make fall migration more difficult but spring migration easier.
- A dam in Thailand caused the local bird population to collapse because of deforestation connected to the dam-building project.
- Important habitat for Swift Parrots could also be destroyed by dam that would support a fish farm and golf course.
- Facial recognition technology can be trained to recognize at least some individual birds.
- Hummingbird gardens around Mexico City are home to a program to monitor the 17 hummingbird species that live in the city.
- A site in California tracks how often individual hummingbirds visit feeders with RFID technology.
- In Southeast Asia, gamebirds are disappearing outside protected areas.
- A community reserve for the rare Bugun Liocichla is becoming a model for protecting birds while benefiting nearby communities.
- A new study suggests how birds and dinosaurs evolved iridescent feathers.
- Satellite trackers are helping scientists monitor the health of Bearded and Cape Vulture populations in South Africa.
- Meanwhile, the vulture population in Nepal are slowly increasing after years of decline with the help of captive breeding.
- European birds that specialize in mountain habitats have been declining since 2000.
- 10,000 Birds: A Birder Reads a Scientific Paper
- ABA Blog: Open Mic: A Better and Simpler Way to Record Bird Sounds with Smartphones
- Vermont Center for Ecostudies: Study Reveals Striking Decline of Vermont's Bumble Bees
- Bird Ecology Study Group: Java Sparrow – juvenile to adult transition
- Kent Dragonflies: My Top 5 Odonata Photos of 2018
- The Meadowlands Nature Blog: Don Torino’s Life in the Meadowlands: Eagle Watching Time Is Now!
- Cool Green Science: Snow Birds: 10 Birds to Look for in Winter
- Avian Hybrids: How many hybrid bird species are there?
- Feathered Photography: Loggerhead Shrike Courtship Feeding Behavior
- Native bees in North America have an important role in pollinating plants. They also may be more susceptible to pesticides than honey bees.
- In urban areas, male túngara frogs sing louder and more complex songs since they are safer from their natural predators.
- Denmark is looking for a way to get people and wolves to coexist.
- The network of protected areas in Europe is insufficient to stop the decline of butterfly species.
- At least one coyote has already crossed a wildlife bridge under construction to provide a safer way for wildlife to cross I-90 in the Cascades.
- A forest that is home to 500-year-old blackgum trees is slowly being killed by saltwater intrusion in southern New Jersey.
- There is a newly-named species of giant salamander in the southeastern US.
- The Trump administration proposed a regulatory change that would remove Clean Water Act protections from ephemeral streams and wetlands that are not directly connected to major waterways. The EPA claims not to have data on how many streams and wetlands would be affected, but a presentation from the USGS shows that it would remove protection from at least 18% of streams and 51% of wetlands. The rule change could threaten wetlands that are important bird habitats.
- The Trump administration will allow seismic blasting off the Atlantic coast to search for oil and gas deposits. Seismic blasting is harmful to marine mammals, and offshore drilling off the Atlantic coast had been restricted by the Obama administration.
- A report from the Union of Concerned Scientists shows how the Interior Department under Ryan Zinke has systematically removed science from its policy-making process, especially in matter relating to climate change, wildlife conservation, or public health.
- Failure to reduce emissions would lead to a climate akin to the Pliocene or Eocene in the 22nd century.
- While that sort of scenario might seem absurd, scientists are already seeing rapid warming in the Arctic.
- A satellite measured methane emissions coming from thawing Arctic lakes for the first time, and so far the emissions seem to be lower than previously estimated.
- While scientists talk about the urgent need for action, the Trump administration used a climate summit to push fossil fuels.
- Warming will hit poorer neighborhoods hardest, partly because of disparities in their street tree canopy.
- Construction of a 30-foot border wall this winter would cut off access to 70% of the National Butterfly Center's property. As with other issues, Ryan Zinke ignored the advice of wildlife biologists regarding border wall construction.
