Friday, July 26, 2019

Loose Feathers #707

Greater Sage-Grouse / Photo by Tom Koerner/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Birds and birding news
Science and nature blogging
Biodiversity and conservation
  • Some of the actions people take to help Monarchs are actually counterproductive. The best things one can do are to plant locally-adapted milkweeds and reduce the use of pesticides.
  • A military base in Pennsylvania is home to a remnant population of Regal Fritillaries.
  • Some tree stumps keep living after a tree falls with help from neighboring trees.
  • Tick saliva has properties that benefit both the tick and the diseases it carries. It makes tick bites hard to detect and neutralizes the body's immune response.
  • The reproductive cycle of certain poison frogs requires more complex mental mapping of their environment than expected.
  • Environmental DNA provides a way to detect species that might be otherwise missed in freshwater wetlands. 
  • A rare primate may have gone extinct in Côte d’Ivoire since it has not been seen in four decades. It belongs to the red colobus group, most of which are highly endangered.
  • Since the closing of Fresh Kills Landfill, its grounds have been reclaimed by nature.
Climate change and environmental politics

Friday, July 19, 2019

Loose Feathers #706

Yellow-headed Blackbird / Photo by Tom Koerner/USFWS
Birds and birding news
Science and nature blogging
Biodiversity and conservation
Climate change and environmental politics

Friday, July 12, 2019

Loose Feathers #705

Tree Swallow / my photo
Birds and birding news
Science and nature blogging
Biodiversity and conservation
Climate change and environmental politics
  • While the DNC still has not approved an official climate debate for the 2020 election cycle, a group of journalists and environmental groups will host a climate summit in September.
  • One way that climate change is changing hurricanes, like the one due to hit Louisiana this weekend, is by making them wetter.
  • Restoring forests could absorb a significant amount of carbon, but scientists disagree on how large the benefit would be. 
  • A company that planned to do aerial surveys of Arctic NWR now says it will not do them. The Interior Department is still determined to sell drilling leases in the refuge.

Friday, July 05, 2019

Loose Feathers #704

Canada Geese / Photo by Tom Koerner/USFWS
Birds and birding news
Science and nature blogging
Biodiversity and conservation
Climate change and environmental politics