Loose Feathers #677

Sedge Wren / Photo by Alex Galt/USFWS

Birds and birding news

• As the Arctic warms, the rate of nest predation there has tripled, making the Arctic less sage for ground-nesting birds like shorebirds.
• A rare Great Black Hawk has persisted in Maine through two snow storms and was recorded on the local CBC. 
• Speaking of Christmas Bird Counts, here is how to find and sign up for one in your area.
• Last weekend, Christmas Bird Counts in the Mid-Atlantic region were pretty soggy.
• Christmas Bird Counts are worth doing even if searches for rare birds turn out to be futile.
• A new paper reports genetic and behavioral evidence for a distinct cardinal population in the Southwest.
• Drones with thermal-imaging cameras can be used to detect nightjar nests.
• Wildlife trafficking is one of the major threats to wild Scarlet Macaws. 
• A German organization that presented itself as a zoo for conservation seems to be involved in trafficking of very rare parrots.
• Seed-eating birds are shifting their breeding season earlier with climate change, just like insect-eating birds.
• A study considered the display flights of Broad-tailed Hummingbirds. 
• Willow Tits are more likely to survive the winter if they join a flock.
• In Patagonia, 23 dead Andean Condors turned out to be poisoned. 
• The genomes for European Robins and European Turtle-Doves were sequenced for the first time.

Science and nature blogging

• The Last Word On Nothing: Looking at Lichen in 2018
• Avithera: Long distance traveller with interesting back story. 
• Urban Hawks: Two Buteos, Red-shouldered Hawk and Red-tailed Hawk
• 10,000 Birds: Shifting Baselines and Sneaky Jays  
• Project SNOWstorm: Out on the Prairies
• Birds, Birds, Birds and More: Reflection on Birding – 2018
• Steve Happ Photography: Tasmanian Endemics 

Conservation and biodiversity

• The development of much of Canada's boreal forest for logging and oil mining has devastated caribou herds.
• Biologists have turned to captive rearing to boost the population of endangered Miami Blue butterflies.
• Hurricane Maria killed around 30 million trees in Puerto Rico, and scientists are studying how the island's forests will change in response. 
• Here are some examples of plants newly discovered this year.
• A citizen science project is documenting wild foxes in Vienna.

Climate change and environmental politics

• The Trump administration is speeding ahead with preparations for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and expects to start selling leases next year. At least one million acres will become available for development.
• A new international agreement created a rulebook for implementing the Paris agreement on climate change.
• A Trump voter who works at the National Butterfly Center is upset that Trump will destroy the refuge to build his wall.
• This year was the third-warmest year on record in the Gulf of Maine, with widespread effects on marine life.
• Canada still refuses to require environmental assessments for in-situ oil mining projects.
• Climate change, particularly sea-level rise, would disrupt Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, according to internal documents.