Loose Feathers #682

Turkey Vulture / Photo by Krista Lundgren/USFWS

Birds and birding news

• Recordings suggest that there are possible nesting populations of Newell’s Shearwaters and Hawaiian Petrels on Oahu.
• The latest update of the IUCN Red List reports that 222 bird species are critically endangered.
• Audubon has a guide to identifying Greater and Lesser Scaup.
• The Great Black Hawk in Maine was taken to a wildlife rehabilitation facility after it was found unresponsive with frostbite. The bird is recovering, but there are now questions about what to do with it once it is healed.
• Scientists have mapped the genomes of three Caribbean parrot species — the Puerto Rican Parrot, Cuban Parrot and Hispaniolan Parrot — to assist with conservation efforts.
• Project SNOWstorm is looking for photos of wintering Snowy Owls to aid identification of individuals. 
• This year's Christmas Bird Count might have been the last in parts of Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park and the National Butterfly Center if the border wall is built as planned.
• David Sibley explains why the presence or absence of an eye-ring is useful for identification.
• Mockingbirds that have been exposed to lead tend to be more aggressive. 
• Mercury pollution also affects birds by raising their metabolism.
• A New York state legislator is writing a bill to require new construction projects to include features to make the buildings safer for birds. 
• Increased water flow to the Colorado River Delta has increased bird abundance by 20% and bird diversity by 42%.
• At least 94 animal species have been documented preying on the nests of Australian birds; among those, the Pied Currawong is known to prey on the most different bird species.
• West Nile Virus is still active and was detected in Ruffed Grouse in Wisconsin.
• Birds can carry fungi along with the plants they grow on.
• This year's Great Backyard Bird Count is February 15-18, 2019. See here for details.

Science and nature blogging

• 10,000 Birds: Maine's Great Black Hawk - Rescued!
• The Last Word On Nothing: Canada Goose, American Dream
• Bird Ecology Study Group: African Sacred Ibis (Threskiornis aethiopicus): Impact of an introduced bird species (To cull or not to cull?)
• Vermont Center for Ecostudies: Help Us Map and Identify Oak  
• Living Alongside Wildlife: Maybe Sparrow 
• Snapshots of Nature: Black-headed Gull
• Net Results: European Goldfinches and other cage birds in the Western Great Lakes 

Conservation and biodiversity

• A recent accident highlighted the weirdness of hagfish and the slime they produce.
• A paper notes the difficulty using photographs to identify members of the genus Lynx.
• A contagious cancer has killed 80% of the wild Tasmanian Devil population, but a new study suggests that it will not cause extinction. 
• Evolution of new species moves the fastest around Antarctica, where the conditions are constantly changing. 
• Bringing wildlife back into cities can start with providing green spaces that attract insects, including rooftop gardens or green roofs. 
• Some wasps have enlarged lower legs to help with balance.

Climate change and environmental politics

• A warmer climate might lead to plants absorbing less carbon dioxide because of the increased risk of drought.
• A triage approach can help planners decide how to adapt to climate change, but governments still need to budget enough to carry through with adaptation. 
• The importance of the climate change problem tends to be underreported, even as communities are forced to move or disasters strike. 
• Because it is an El Niño year, atmospheric carbon dioxide is expected to rise more this year than it did last year. 
• Parts of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument are now available for mining, but it remains to be seen if mining will actually happen.
• Protests and corruption investigations stopped a series of dams along the Marañón River between Peru and Brazil that would have resulted in an environmental disaster.
• A bill in the NJ Assembly would protect Liberty State Park from further development schemes.

Loose Feathers #681

Northern Shovelers / Photo by June Durbian/USFWS

Birds and birding news

• The AOS released its second batch (pdf) of classification committee proposals for 2019. See also analysis from the ABA Blog.
• Birds in mountainous habitat are moving their ranges higher in elevation as the climate warms. 
• In coastal Virginia, Yellow-crowned Night-Herons are nesting close to three weeks earlier than they did 50 years ago because of the earlier availability of fiddler crab prey.
• A Tufted Duck showed up in Australia for the first time, and a European Robin turned up in Beijing.
• Meanwhile, a Red-flanked Bluetail appeared in Los Angeles.
• Gurney's Pitta is rapidly declining due to habitat loss.
• A genetic study found a unique Northern Goshawk population on the island of Haida Gwaii in British Columbia.
• Satellite tags tracked the behavior of fledgling Emperor Penguins on their first trip to the sea. 
• A small percentage of feather mites parasitize the wrong host species.

Science and nature blogging

• INSIGHT-BLOG: Chasing the Gray-cheeked Thrush
• Matthew R. Halley: Color variation among subspecies of nightingale-thrushes (genus Catharus): part 1 
• 10,000 Birds: The European Christmas Bird Count
• Chicago Ornithological Society: Dan's Feathursday Feature: Black-capped Chickadee
• Avian Hybrids: Unraveling the history (or histories?) of the Red-bellied Woodpecker 
• Birding Beijing 北京观鸟: ‘Brexit refugee’ European Robin given warm reception in Beijing
• Shorebirder: "Kamchatka" Mew Gull in Connecticut
• Living Alongside Wildlife: On the Border with Black Bears 
• Backyard and Beyond: Lord Love A Duck
• Urban Hawks: Peregrine Falcons Hunt 
• Bird Ecology Study Group: House Crow catching an insect on the wing
• Mia McPherson's On The Wing Photography: Hen and Drake Hooded Mergansers With and Without Prey

Conservation and biodiversity

• New research shows that lichens have complex structures that may include more than one type of fungus.
• Insect populations in Puerto Rico have crashed, with losses of 98% of ground insects and 80% of tree insects. Along with them, insect-eating birds and frogs have declined significantly.
• The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species provides information on the conservation status of animal species, but currently the assessments for 600 species may be inaccurate.
• Around 60% of the 124 wild coffee species are in danger of extinction, including the wild species of Arabica.
• The Billion Oyster Project is restoring the lost oyster reefs around New York Harbor. A restored oyster population will help to clean up the bay's waters and provide some protection against future storm surges.
• In other shellfish news, Bartram's Garden in Philadelphia is starting a hatchery to restore freshwater mussel populations in the Delaware, Schuylkill, and Susquehanna watersheds.
• Here is a look at how invertebrates survive the winter.
• A study found Red Wolf DNA in a pack of wild canines (probably coywolves) in Galveston.

Climate change and environmental politics

• Oceans had their warmest year on record in 2018, and Antarctica is losing ice six times faster than in 1979. The combination makes flooding routine along the East Coast.
• A report emphasizes the role forests can play in mitigating climate change if they protected and deforested areas are allowed to recover.
• The federal government shutdown set a new record for its duration this week. While public lands are understaffed, the administration is making sure new resource extraction claims are expedited (though it backed off in at least one case). The husband of Oregon's governor cleaned up the trash around Mount Hood and sent the bill to Trump. The shutdown will likely interrupt a long-running wolf ecology study and also prevent the relocation of wolves to Isle Royale.
• The border wall expansion at the heart of the shutdown will have adverse ecological effects. It threatens unique bee populations that thrive along the border. Plans include floodlights that will contribute to local light pollution.
• Environmentalists can expect stricter oversight of the Interior Department from the House Natural Resources Committee. Planned hearings include environmental impacts of the border wall, climate change, and regulatory rollbacks, including the weakening of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
• As acting head of the EPA, Andrew Wheeler has already done most of the coal industry's agenda. At his confirmation hearing this week, Wheeler played down the importance of climate change. 
• Wheeler will not be the only appointment at the EPA with industry ties. 
• When Pruitt was still in charge of the EPA, he turned over control of the toxic Anaconda Copper Mine site to the state of Nevada, in a move closely coordinated with BP.
• The Delaware River Port Authority is planning to install solar panels on the bridges and train stations it operates.

Loose Feathers #680

Black-billed Magpie / Photo by Tom Koerner/USFWS

Birds and birding news

• New Caledonian Crows can tell how heavy an object is by how it behaves in the wind.
• Some hummingbirds have bills that are better for fighting than feeding. 
• Radar and eBird data suggest that 2.1 billion birds pass through the Gulf of Mexico each spring, and the timing of spring migration has remained consistent over the past 20 years despite climate change.
• Last year there were 37 active Peregrine Falcon nests (pdf) in New Jersey, and those nests produced 75 young.
• Syncrude will pay $2.7 million in fines for the deaths of 31 great blue herons at one of its tar sands mining sites.
• One feral cat wiped out almost an entire breeding colony of Fairy Terns in Western Australia. 
• A set of lawsuits is challenging how water management and farming practices affect birds at the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge Complex in California.

Science and nature blogging

• Vermont Center for Ecostudies: Move over Monarchs: VCE and Colleagues Reveal Astonishing Dragonfly Migration
• 10,000 Birds: Puerto Rico's Birds after Hurricane Maria
• iNaturalist.org Blog: A Merlin Fly-by: Observation of the Week, 1/4/19 
• Bourbon, Bastards, and Birds.: 2019: The Year of The 5MR
• I Used to Hate Birds: Cheers to the 5MR!
• Elev. 401: Wintering waterfowl
• Outside My Window: Casting A Pellet
• Feathered Photography: Ruffed Grouse Have Built-in ‘Snowshoes’ And They’re Not Made of Feathers 
• Avian Hybrids: A hybrid between Black-browed Tit and Sooty Tit
• Laura Goggin Photography: Rounding out 2018 and looking forward to a new year of birds  
• Cool Green Science: One Square Meter of Prairie

Conservation and biodiversity

• While the eastern population of Monarchs seemed to have a good year last year, the western population did not, and the number of Monarchs wintering in Mexico continues to fall.
• New studies found evidence that plants can hear and produce sounds.
• Strange sounds recorded at the U.S. embassy in Cuba turned out to be Indies Short-tailed Crickets. (The cause of the staff's symptoms is still unknown.) The news is a reminder that animals make a lot of strange sounds, and humans are mostly unfamiliar with them.
• Hawaii's endemic snails are disappearing rapidly, with the latest extinction in the first week of this year.
• A wildlife crossing over I-90 near Snoqualmie Pass in Washington is already being used by wildlife even as construction work continues.
• The life cycle of the rare Bulloak Jewel Butterfly, which feeds on mistletoe, depends on protection from ants.
• A newly-discovered frog species has extra claws for self-defense on its thumbs.

Climate change and environmental politics

• During the government shutdown, the Trump administration left many national parks open with no one to staff them, leading to significant damage at some parks. This includes Joshua trees cut down and new illegal roads for off-road vehicles at Joshua Tree National Park. (The park service backtracked on whether that park would close.) Meanwhile, park superintendents are not allowed to talk publicly about the issue.
• The shutdown is also making weather forecasts worse and possibly making the food supply less safe.
• A wall may be of questionable effectiveness anyway. 
• The administration allowed a road to be built through a wilderness are at Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, and the road seems to be mainly for transporting seafood even though the public justification is medical transportation.
• In climate new, greenhouse gas emissions rose in 2018 in the U.S.
• Thermal expansion will raise ocean levels by about a foot by 2100, in addition to the rise from melting glaciers. 
• Meanwhile, fights are beginning over who owns land submerged by rising sea levels.
• Vertical solar panels on mountain peaks can increase the amount of solar energy available in winter months.
• A company that was accused of faking soil tests was awarded the contract to clean up the sites burned by the Camp Fire in California.
• Record rainfall increased the amounts of nitrogen and phosphorous that entered the Chesapeake Bay last year. 
• In New Jersey, 2018 was the wettest year on record. 
• Microplastics are present in the Raritan River's headwaters, especially downstream from wastewater plants.
• Sea Isle City floods often, so it is installing a 24-hour livestream to monitor one of its frequently flooded streets.

Loose Feathers #679

Ring-billed Gull / my photo

Birds and birding news

• Last year, there were 185 active Bald Eagle nests in New Jersey, and they produced 172 young. About half of the state's nests were located in the Delaware Bay region. You can read the report of the New Jersey Bald Eagle Project here (pdf).
• At the Magellanic Penguin breeding colony at Punta Tombo in Argentina, males outnumber females by about three to one, most likely because females are more likely than males to die at sea. Their death rate seems to be tied to a serious population decline.
• Audubon covers the birding possibilities in the Red Dead Redemption video game.
• A proposed conservation area for the endangered Black-throated Finch in Australia sits on top of a proposed coal mine, which raises questions about how serious the conservation plan is.

Science and nature blogging

• Living Alongside Wildlife: The Species That Went Extinct in 2018 
• Corvid Research: 2018 research round up
• Vermont Center for Ecostudies: Field Guide to January 2019
• Mia McPherson's On The Wing Photography: New Year’s Day Neotropic Cormorant Sighting
• The Prairie Ecologist: It’s working! Evidence of benefits from seed-addition in degraded prairie.
• Feathered Photography: Sage Thrasher Throwing Up Multiple Fruit Pits
• Snapshots of Nature: Ringing in 2019 with Birds 
• Laura's Birding Blog: Federal Workers Are FOR the Birds 
• Dan Tallman’s Bird Blog: Hairy Woodpecker vs Downy Woopecker 
• Bird Ecology Study Group: Pacific Gull eating a dead cuttlefish
• Otter Creek Audubon Society: Highlights of the 30th Annual Middlebury Christmas Bird Count 
• Urban Hawks: Owl Walk

Conservation and biodiversity

• Passive listening devices are an effective way to monitor biodiversity as well as threats like deforestation and poaching. 
• If the Bsal fungus makes it to the U.S., it will infect salamander populations that are already facing a variety of threats.
• Pathogens like Sudden Oak Death have been introduced into restoration areas via plant nurseries.

Climate change and environmental politics

• Even though most employees are furloughed, national parks have largely remained open during the federal government shutdown, with unsafe and unsanitary conditions as a result.
• Despite the shutdown, the EPA released a finding that would take a step towards deregulating mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants. Such a move would increase the risks to public health in any states that rely on coal for electricity.
• Here is a summary of last month's developments in environmental policy.
• Meanwhile, opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling would disturb much more of the refuge than the administration claims.
• A dam collapse in Laos over the summer resulted in massive deforestation.
• There is momentum for bans on plastic single-use straws, but straws are a small part of the total plastic problem.
• A boom intended to trap plastic in the Pacific Garbage Patch broke into two pieces and will need to be towed to shore.
• On his first day in office, Brazil's new president moved to open indigenous reserves to agricultural development.