Posts
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| Tree Swallow / my photo |
- Black birders designated this week as Black Birders Week in response to the bias incident in Central Park and coinciding with nation-wide protests over police brutality. The event generated a large response, most of which can be found on Twitter under the #BlackBirdersWeek hashtag.
- Several people have written essays or given interviews on race and birding. Here is an interview with Corinna Newsome, one of the event's organizers. Here is an interview with Jason Ward, another of the event's organizers. Two focus on monitoring birds in Baltimore: part 1 and part 2. Here is an interview with Sheridan Alford, another organizer. A white birder reflects on times he may have exposed Black birders to racial discrimination without intending it. Here is an interview with J. Drew Lanham. BirdLife added some international perspectives. There is also a compilation of blog posts on birding from Black Outdoors.
- Horseshoe crab spawning was down this year due to the cold spring, and Red Knot numbers around the Delaware Bay are down as well. Horseshoe crabs are still harvested for their blood, which is used in medical research; an industry group recently rejected a synthetic alternative.
- Hawaii's birds are threatened by climate change and introduced pests like mosquitos.
- Here is an essay on birding in the pandemic.
- Great Gray Owls lose some of their genetic diversity when populations are cut off from each other.
- Australian conservationists want changes to environmental laws to protect birds like the Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo and Gray Range Thick-billed Grasswren, which fall between the cracks of existing laws.
- Vermont Center for Ecostudies: Field Guide to June
- Avian Hybrids: Ancient DNA helps to place two extinct duck species on the Tree of Life
- Feathered Photography: American White Pelican – A Question Of Behavior
- Show Me Nature Photography: The Cleanup Crew
- Backyard and Beyond: The Central Park Effect
- Arachnofiles: Arachnews: May 31, 2020
- Brazil's native stingless bees are crucial for agriculture, but are threatened by habitat degradation and overuse of pesticides.
- Last year, the rivers around Bristol Bay were too warm for sockeye salmon to spawn. In fact, the water temperature was almost 20 degrees above normal.
- The extinction rate appears to be increasing; as many species are expected to go extinct in the next 20 years as in the past century.
- An invasive fungus is threatening Australia's native plants, especially in the family Myrtaceae.
- Polar willows are a key food for reindeer on Svalbard, and a new study looks at what controls their growth.
- Invasive Asian tiger mosquitos continue to spread in the U.S., thanks in part to the used tire industry, which provides habitat for their eggs and larvae.
- A new study examines genetic diversity among bighorn sheep.
- Turning off or dimming unnecessary lights at night can benefit wildlife.
- Urban red foxes have smaller brains and a different snout shape compared to their rural relatives.
- While new carbon emissions have temporarily fallen during the coronavirus pandemic, total atmospheric carbon levels continue to climb and hit a new record in May.
- A new paper attempts to model what a second Trump term would mean for the climate.
- The administration is making further changes to cost-benefit analyses for Clean Air Act regulations to allow for more pollution.
- Racial bias interferes with work to prevent climate change. Some environmentalists note the contrast between the way Climate Strike and Black Lives Matter activists are treated. Others are calling for more attention to environmental justice.
- The EPA is changing rules to prevent states from blocking pipelines based on water pollution concerns.
- The administration is also using the pandemic as an excuse to waive whatever environmental laws it wants.
- There is a massive diesel fuel spill in the Russian Arctic.
- This attempts to explain why everything seems to be falling apart at the same time.
- This hurricane season is expected to be more active than usual, but most Americans still lack flood insurance.
- A court struck down the EPA's registration of Dicamba for use as an herbicide.
- A judge rejected a land swap that would have allowed a road through Izembek NWR.
- New Jersey will become the first state to implement a climate change curriculum from kindergarten through high school.
