Loose Feathers #742

American Robin / my photo

Birds and birding news

• Watching even common birds like geese can distract from the coronavirus for a little while, and so can paying attention to the arrival of spring.
• This week was the 19th anniversary of the time Randy Johnson hit a Mourning Dove with a pitch, and Newsweek asked a group of ornithologists to discuss the event. 
• Conservation for the Red-fronted Macaw focuses on getting communities involved in protecting the birds and stopping their capture for the pet trade. 
• Commercial bird seed often contains the seeds of invasive weeds mixed among the sunflower and millet seeds.

Science and nature blogging

• The Meadowlands Nature Blog: Don Torino's Life in the Meadowlands: The Promise of Spring
• Avian Hybrids: Shake your tail feather! Courtship displays and genetic analyses uncover extensive hybridization between Allen’s and Rufous Hummingbird
• iNaturalist: Exploring Nature When You're Stuck at Home
• Steve Happ Photography: Spoonbills and Ibis
• Arachnofiles: Arachnews: March 23, 2020 
• Backyard and Beyond: Timber! It’s Timberdoodle Season
• Wing Beat: Scytalopus Tapaculos, a Continental Non-Adaptive Radiation 

Biodiversity and conservation

• The Great Barrier Reef suffered its third major coral bleaching in the past five years.
• White Fringetrees seem to be able to recover from Emerald Ash Borer attacks.
• Researchers want to find out where western Monarchs go in early spring because many that survive the winter are not making it to their breeding grounds.
• A lot of species in the Andes are declining, but Andean (or Spectacled) Bears are doing well.

Climate change and environmental politics

• A court struck down the permits for the Dakota Access pipeline and ordered the government to conduct a full environmental impact statement. 
• The EPA decided to use the coronavirus as an excuse to relax air pollution rules, even though air pollution seems to be an aggravating factor for the disease. 
• Likewise, the Interior Department is using the coronavirus as a cover for numerous attempts to undermine environmental laws and regulations, including the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
• The best way to keep plastic from polluting the environment is to stop it at the source, the fossil fuels that plastic is made from.
• Since the end of Colombia's civil war, its national parks have been threatened by deforestation and oil exploration.