Posts
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| Mallard / my photo |
- Three native honeycreeper species on Kauai are starting to sound like each other because their populations have declined so much. The loss of distinctive songs could make it harder for them to find mates and worsen their chances for survival.
- A recent article describes three new tapaculo species from Peru.
- Industrial krill fishing off the Antarctic Peninsula makes life harder for penguins.
- The Saltmarsh Sparrow is the only bird species unique to East Coast saltmarshes, and its survival is threatened because sea level rise is steadily turning the high marsh where it nests into low marsh.
- Black-throated Blue Warblers are migrating about five days earlier than they did in the 1960s.
- Raptors that eat from higher levels of the food web accumulate more mercury in their bodies.
- Sea lions in Chile suddenly started preying on the largest breeding colony of Black-necked Swans, raising questions about whether this would affect the swans' population and if the predation could be stopped.
- Harriet Tubman used bird calls (especially Barred Owl) as a signal to people she was helping to escape from slavery.
- A new report on the state of India's birds found that 50% of species had declined over the past two decades and 79% had declined within the past five years.
- Toxic chemicals can build up in the bodies of seabirds that have eaten plastic.
- The US Fish and Wildlife Service is attempting to eradicate house mice from the South Farallon Islands to protect a breeding colony of Ashy Storm-Petrels.
- A viral story about a poodle being carried off by a hawk is probably false.
- Electrocution has become one of the top threats to Bald Eagles and other raptor species in New Jersey.
- Avian Hybrids: Ecological speciation in the saltmarshes
- Nemesis Bird: The Snowy Owl's Supper, a Pellet Mini-Mystery by Tim Healy
- Feathered Photography: Peregrine Falcon Circling Prey
- The Prairie Ecologist: Another Example of the Value of Thistles
- Cool Green Science: Reducing the Speed Limit Won’t Make Roads Safer for Wildlife
- The Freiday Bird Blog: Threats to NJ Birds: The Upshot
- Backyard and Beyond: Oaks to Caterpillars to Birds
- On The Wing Photography: Male Red-winged Blackbirds Are Displaying On Territory
- Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey: Ospreys Continue to Thrive in New Jersey
- Arachnofiles: Arachnews: February 24, 2020
- Birds Korea Blog: Opinion: New Airports and Climate Change
- Colin Purrington: Spotted lanternfly control tips
- Conservationists are worried about the potential for extinctions if a chytrid fungus spreads among the many salamander species in Appalachia.
- Bolivia and Paraguay are developing a joint conservation plan for wild guanacos.
- Delaware has a plan to remove or modify the ten remaining dams on its section of Brandywine Creek to restore fish migration.
- The number of Monarchs that winter in California remained critically low for the second straight year.
- Planting native plants can help reverse insect declines.
- The Supreme Court heard arguments this week over whether the Atlantic Coast Pipeline could cross the Appalachian Trail without Congressional approval. (The land is within a national forest, but the trail is administered by the National Park Service.) The case could set a precedent for trails elsewhere in the country.
- Meanwhile, a pipeline developer cancelled plans to build a natural gas pipeline through the Catskill Mountains, and a proposed tar sands mining development in Alberta collapsed because investors were concerned it might not be profitable. The cancellation of the latter project saved thousands of acres of boreal forest.
- Unusually warm summers in coastal Alaska caused major changes in the distribution of marine life.
- Climate change is also making shellfish toxic for indigenous Alaskans.
- The EPA is asking the public (including polluters) which regulations to get rid of.
- The Trump administration abruptly shut down a study of potential storm surge solutions for New York Harbor and Raritan Bay. Environmentalists opposed the centerpiece of the study, a six-mile barrier across the mouth of the bay because it would concentrate pollutants and sediment in the estuary and possibly harm marine life.
- This year California's new groundwater regulations will begin to go into effect. Wells will still be allowed, but pumping will be limited to sustainable levels.
- This winter is on track to being one of the least snowy winters in New Jersey on record.
- A fire burned through part of Worthington State Forest in the Delaware Water Gap this week.
