Loose Feathers #764

Pectoral Sandpipers / Photo by Jessica Bolser/USFWS

Birds and birding news

• EBird announced that their October Big Day will be on October 17 this year, and the same weekend will feature the first-ever Global Bird Weekend.
• Research from Norway shows that painting one of the arms of a wind turbine black can reduce bird deaths by 70%. If this works reliably it could keep bird deaths down even as wind farms expand.
  
• Conservationists are close to ridding the Miramar Peninsula, near Wellington, of its invasive mammals, which should benefit native bird species like the Tui and Kereru.
• Willie Wagtails sing on nights with a full moon.
• One of the wildfires in California may have killed some California Condors.
• A protected area is being created for the endangered Blue-throated Hillstar, first described in 2018.
• A captive-bred Regent Honeyeater led scientists to a wild flock that had previously been undocumented.
• Under pressure from the EU, France finally banned using glue traps to catch songbirds.
  

Science and nature blogging

• Shorebirder: Guest Post by Tim Spahr: Finding Connecticut Warblers in Fall Migration
  
• On The Wing Photography: Molting House Wren
  
• awkward botany: Flowers Growing Out of Flowers (Things Are Getting Weird Out There)
• In Defense of Plants: The Role of Leaf Shape on Insect Herbivory
• Backyard and Beyond: Sidewalks of New York 
• marianmacblog: We Will Always Have Wasps: Coping with biodiversity loss in the Anthropocene
  
• Feathered Photography: Nashville Warbler Versus MacGillivray’s Warbler
• Cool Green Science: A Field Guide to Finding Cool Moths
  

Biodiversity and conservation

• Bighorn sheep that are in areas with minimal human disturbance have more resilience in the face of climate change.
• Some of the forest areas burned by recent wildfires may turn into grasslands or shrublands rather than recovering as forests.
• Traps for Spotted Lanternflies need to be installed carefully to avoid catching other animals.
• Old-growth redwoods survived a fire that burned through Big Basin Redwoods State Park in California last week. 
• PFAS has been found in many marine organisms, but it is unclear what that means for their health in the long term. 
• Scientists are trying to stop the spread of the Spotted Lanternfly, but last year the Trump administration halved the funding for invasive species control.
• Cicadas will be a lot more noticeable in the Mid-Atlantic region next year, when Brood X emerges.
  
• The Chesapeake region is being invaded by water chestnut.
  
• Conservationists are preparing to remove the Headgates Dam, the last dam on the Raritan River before it divides into North and South branches.

Climate change and environmental politics

• Climate change is fueling a summer of extreme weather, from massive wildfires in western states to powerful hurricanes in the Atlantic. The various disasters are linked by abnormally high temperatures.
  
• Hurricane Laura passed through an area densely packed with oil rigs, refineries, and other chemical factories. One of the plants caught fire and is probably emitting chlorine gas.
• As bad as Hurricane Laura and recent wildfires have been, it may get worse since the peak seasons for fires and hurricanes have not arrived yet.
• Climate change is raising questions about the future, especially in states like California, which has a long-term drought fueling its wildfires.
• Natural disasters like Hurricane Laura hurt some more than others because of pre-existing social and economic inequalities.
• Redlining and highway construction are linked with changes in ecosystems and biodiversity, such as urban heat islands, impervious surfaces, lack of trees, and habitat fragmentation by highways.
  
• In addition to harming marine mammals, the use of seismic airguns to search for oil along the Atlantic coast could set off chemical munitions that were dumped at sea as recently as 1970.
• Natural grasslands have potential as carbon sinks because grasses store most of their carbon below ground.
  
• Policymakers are starting to realize the necessity for relocating people away from the coasts and other flood-prone areas as sea levels rise and storms become more intense.
  
• The fight to stop drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is not over yet as Native American and environmental groups filed lawsuits to stop the leases.
• Climate change remains an important issue for voters, despite the pandemic and everything else.
• Freshkills Park will start opening to the public next year after a long remediation effort that included the reintroduction of native trees and grasses.