Loose Feathers #690

Red-winged Blackbird / Photo by Tom Koerner/USFWS

Birds and birding news

• The Trump administration revoking protections for sage grouse that were put in place during the Obama administration to avoid listing the species under the Endangered Species Act.
• CITES could help protect endangered Black-winged Starlings, but they (and many other species) are not listed under the treaty.
• The White-throat Song project is looking for recordings of White-throated Sparrows singing in winter. 
• Brown-headed Nuthatches will help their parents raise younger siblings when fewer potential mates are available.
• A fossil bird named Avimaia from the Cretaceous was found with an unlaid egg.
• Jason Ward, who runs the #TrickyBirdID hashtag game on Twitter, has a new video series on birding.
• A column by Jim Wright tries to answer why people watch birds.
• Captive-bred Florida Grasshopper Sparrows are suffering from a parasite that had not been previously discovered, which raises questions about whether to release the captive-bred birds. 
• The rediscovery of the Night Parrot in Australia has been called into question.
• There are efforts to increase diversity among birders. 
• Ontario is opening a recreational hunting program for cormorants, with virtually no limits on how many can be killed.
• Hen Harriers are being illegally killed in Great Britain, especially around grouse moors. 
• Rainy springs make survival harder for Tree Swallow nestlings.
• Viewers of the DC eagle nest webcams have seen plenty of drama this winter. 
• Ospreys have started returning to the Jersey shore.

Science and nature blogging

• Extinction Countdown: Climate Change Claims Its First Mammal Extinction
• Avian Hybrids: Chaffinches on the Canary Islands: A new subspecies on Gran Canaria
• Mia McPherson's On The Wing Photography: Nature’s Calendar – Spring Sprang A While Ago
• 10,000 Birds: Fun with Fish Crows 
• The Artful Amoeba: 2.1-Billion-Year-Old Tracks May Be Giant Ancient "Slime Molds"
• MaghrebOrnitho: First records of the Eastern Subalpine Warblers for Morocco 
• Observations: We Can't Take the Science out of our Clean Air Standards
• Vermont Center for Ecostudies: Red-winged Blackbirds Signal the Arrival of Spring
• Net Results: Updated annotated Dearborn bird checklist available now 

Conservation and biodiversity

• Four Gray Wolves from Canada were recently airlifted to Isle Royale National Park to boost the dwindling wolf population in the park.
• Interactions between rare species often disappear before the species themselves do, and those missing interactions need to be included in recovery plans.
• The first Hoodwinker Sunfish for North America was originally documented in a submission to iNaturalist.
• A new study suggests that growing numbers of Coyotes in the eastern United States is doing little to limit the White-tailed Deer population. 
• Monarchs have already started migrating north, in larger numbers than they have in some time, but it is a little too early for milkweed.
• Soft tissue can persist in fossils in the form of polymers. 
• Canada clearcuts a million acres of its boreal forest per year, and much of the wood goes to make toilet paper. 
• Last year, the Columbia Dam on the Paulins Kill, an important Delaware River tributary, started to be removed.
• Ensatinas are a ring species that occurs in multiple forms around California.

Climate change and environmental politics

• Dams to control flooding in the Missouri River watershed are becoming inadequate as climate change increases the amount of storm runoff, especially during events like the recent bomb cyclone.
• Polls show that Americans, especially Democratic voters, are seeing climate change as a problem that needs to be solved.
• Forests are absorbing more carbon dioxide, but the current level of carbon emissions is more than they can handle.
• Melting glaciers are exposing the bodies of dead hikers on Mount Everest. 
• National parks in New Jersey need more than $223 million for maintenance and repairs; national parks nationwide have a $11.9 billion work backlog. About half of the state's total is at Sandy Hook since many historic structures are crumbling.
• A new report questions the need for a new fracked gas pipeline (pdf) through New York Harbor. This pipeline has drawn protests in Central Jersey.
• The US is accused of blocking binding goals for the reduction of global plastic pollution; US opposition seems linked to the desire of US oil firms to ramp up plastic production.
• Visitors to the California super bloom should try not to damage the ecosystem; this should apply in other places as well.