Posts
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| Brown-headed Cowbirds / my photo |
- Due to the coronavirus pandemic, many spring birding festivals have been canceled. The National Park Service is leaving outdoor spaces open but visitor centers and other buildings may be closed. New Jersey state parks are still open, but visitor centers and other facilities are closed. New Jersey Audubon has closed its nature centers, but trails are open at most preserves.
- A fossil skull found in Belgium appears to be close to the most recent common ancestor of waterfowl and gamebirds. The bird lived in the Late Cretaceous and probably foraged in coastal habitats.
- The Mexican Duck is difficult to identify and has an uncertain taxonomic status.
- The Manumea, or Tooth-billed Pigeon, has been decimated by market hunting, and it may be too late to save it.
- The Tibetan Plateau seems to prevent hybridization between two subspecies of Barn Swallow because it separates their migration routes and wintering areas.
- Little Ringed Plovers that nest in Japan primarily use rice paddies as stopover areas during their spring and fall migrations.
- Veterinarians managed to save most of the Kakapo population from an outbreak of aspergillosis.
- American Birding Association: 2020 AOS Classification Committee Proposals, Parts 2 and 3
- corvidresearch: What are crows thinking when they see death?
- awkward botany: The Dispersal of Ancient and Modern Apples by Humans and Other Megafauna
- Avian Hybrids: Are there still “pure” Hawaiian Ducks?
- 10,000 Birds: Birding Mkuze
- earthstar: 79/366 The twister
- Arachnofiles: Arachnews: March 16, 2020
- On The Wing Photography: Perched Broad-tailed Hummingbird Male
- The Forest Service is finishing work on removing 81 dams from watersheds within Cleveland National Forest in California to reopen the streams for spawning fish. Most of the dams are small and date to the mid-20th century. Like small dams removed elsewhere, many had become safety hazards.
- Like other marine animals, sea turtles may eat plastic because it smells like food. The odor is probably caused by algae or other microbes growing on the plastic.
- Lack of experience with nature leads some people to fear it and hampers conservation efforts.
- At least some toads can heal themselves of a chytrid infection by basking in the open and raising their body temperatures to a point that kills the fungus.
- Tracking data from seabirds and marine mammals is being used to find biodiversity hotspots in the Southern Ocean.
- Seattle is redesigning its seawall along Elliott Bay to make it more hospitable to marine life.
- Monarch migration to Mexico dropped by 53%.
- The threat of coronavirus and bans on large public gatherings has forced climate activists to cancel their regular Friday protests for the foreseeable future.
- Last summer, meltwater from Greenland's ice sheet raised global sea levels by 2.2 mm in only two months.
- This winter was the warmest on record across the northern hemisphere.
- Scientists are increasingly worried about the potential carbon release from an abrupt thaw of permafrost.
- Rutgers is planning to move most of its research and education programs from its marine field station to Tuckerton because sea level rise causes Great Bay Boulevard to flood more frequently.
