Posts
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| Common Yellowthroat / Photo by Kyle Chelius/USFWS |
- It was another bad summer for seabirds in Alaska, as volunteers collected nearly 9,200 seabird carcasses from around Alaska's coastline. Short-tailed Shearwaters had a particularly hard summer. Since die-offs have occurred in each of the past five years, it seems that there may be a link to warmer ocean temperatures.
- Over three hundred Chimney Swifts collided with the large glass windows of the NASCAR Hall of Fame on a single night this week.
- A study identified control of invasive rats as the best way to protect the Puaiohi, a thrush endemic to Kauai.
- Red-cockaded Woodpecker are changing their nesting times in response to climate change, but not all populations are changing the same way, and northern and eastern nesters are doing better than southwestern ones.
- New research shows that Phainopeplas fit a pattern called itinerant breeding, in which they breed in one place and then migrate somewhere else and breed again there. Only two other itinerant breeders are known, the Tricolored Blackbird and the Red-billed Quelea.
- A new species called the Spectacled Flowerpecker has been described from Borneo. The species was noted by birders ten years ago and finally was studied more closely this year.
- Barnacle Geese are thriving in the face of climate change by establishing breeding colonies further north.
- Each Little Penguin colony in Tasmania has its own foraging preferences, but all three pay attention to water temperature and depth.
- A judge issued an injunction against the Trump administration's management plan for Greater Sage-Grouse, which would have opened more sage-grouse habitat for resource extraction.
- Scientists are still debating the ethics of killing Barred Owls to save Northern Spotted Owls, even as more than 2,400 Barred Owls have been killed in an experiment to see if control is effective.
- Washington is preparing a new conservation plan for the Marbled Murrelet.
- Warmer nights seem to prompt Blue Tits to lay their eggs earlier in the spring.
- Fall migration can bring unexpected birds when some birds fly in the wrong direction.
- Corn Crakes are declining partly because of changes in agricultural practices.
- More intensive agriculture has led to lands being withdrawn from conservation programs, which hurts grassland birds.
- Recent studies have shown some of the genetic basis for plumage color.
- Gulls seem to be ubiquitous, but many species are in decline, especially in New England.
- Feathered Photography: Unique Adaptations of Woodpeckers
- ABA Blog: Happening NOW: Storm-Blown Birds from Hurricane Dorian
- Backyard and Beyond: The Case Against Honeybees
- 10,000 Birds: The First Bird Tracking Station Is Up and Running in Costa Rica
- On The Wing Photography: Audubon’s And Myrtle Yellow-rumped Warblers Perched In The Same Tree
- Leaving fallen leaves in place rather than raking or blowing them away can help protect biodiversity since many invertebrates use dead leaves as shelter over the winter.
- Sawfish numbers are crashing in the Gulf of Carpentaria, which is considered their global stronghold.
- The first genome of the Spotted Lanternfly was built from a single specimen captured in Reading, Pennsylvania.
- Freshwater mussels are dying of a mysterious illness, and the die-off is threatening river ecosystems.
- Time is running out to save the vaquita, and it is not clear if recent policy changes will be enough to do it.
- Researchers mapped the complex evolutionary history of oaks.
- Beavers have once again disappeared from the San Pedro River in Arizona.
- A columnist argues that Britain should let its forests regrow naturally.
- Increasing numbers of mountain bikers on public lands is leading to conflicts with bears.
- Manatees and Key Deer are threatened by climate-fueled superstorms.
- A seismometer in an old railroad tunnel in the Pyrenees records the sound of climate change caused by meltwater running over the tunnel.
- Since Bolsonaro was elected, violence against Brazil's indigenous people has increased as corporate interests rush to exploit their lands.
- London tried to ban the Extinction Rebellion protests, but the protests have not stopped.
- Sea-level rise is swamping the Sundarbans and forcing people to evacuate.
- The Trump administration is trying to strip the Roadless Rule from Tongass National Forest to allow more logging.
- Mines in British Columbia are leaching selenium into the Kootenai River, which crosses the US-Canada border. Many aquatic invertebrates cannot survive higher levels of selenium.
- A majority of New Jerseyans see climate change as a major problem. The state is among those where the temperature is warming and the sea is rising the fastest.
- New Jersey's Blue Acres program, which buys flood-prone properties and turns them into open space, recently made its 700th purchase, but there are many more that might be eligible if the funding were available.
- The Army Corps of Engineers wants to build massive storm surge barriers around New York Harbor, which threatens the estuary's improving ecology.
