Posts
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| Piping Plover / Photo by Matt Poole/USFWS |
Birds and birding news
- Hummingbirds that live at higher altitudes spend more time in torpor at lower temperatures to conserve energy on cold nights. The lowest recorded temperature of a hummingbird in torpor is now 38°F, as opposed to their normal daytime temperature of 96°F.
- The Northwestern Crow is being merged with the American Crow because of hybridization between the two populations.
- Ornithological groups are trying to reconcile the four main bird checklists (eBird/Clements, Howard and Moore, IOC, and HBW/BirdLife) into one global checklist because disagreements over taxonomy among the current checklists are hampering conservation work.
- When territory with granary trees opens, Acorn Woodpeckers spend days fighting to claim it, and the battles often involve coalitions.
- Poaching threatens the attempt to rebuild a Whooping Crane population in Louisiana and accounts for 25% of known Whooping Crane deaths in that state.
- A pair of Peregrine Falcons nested in New York's Taughannock Gorge this spring for the first time since 1946. The gorge was the site of a famous photo of a falcon eyrie taken by Arthur Allen in the 1930s.
- A new book recounts the field work behind the creation of a conservation plan for Blakiston's Fish-Owl.
- There is no scientific support for the claim that "regenerative ranching" will help grassland birds.
- Birds in nesting boxes around a single golf club consume 5.3 million insects in a breeding season.
Science and nature blogging
- 10,000 Birds: What are the Costs of Changing Bird Names?
- On The Wing Photography: I’m Just Mad About Sparrows
- Corvid Research: Crows removing ticks: helpfulness, opportunism, or something else?
Biodiversity and conservation
- Here are 10 things to know about the illegal wildlife trade, which threatens the existence of many species and also poses risks for humans.
- Over 80% of the Boreal Forest remains intact in North America but requires protection from resource extraction like logging and fossil fuel mining.
- Posts on social media as well as iNaturalist are helping track the spread of invasive species.
- Americans have been spending more time observing nature since the pandemic started, and as a result eBird, iNaturalist, and other sites have had more submissions than usual.
- A new study argues that it is still possible to stop and even reverse biodiversity loss, but doing so would require both increased habitat protection and changes to the food system.
- Since 1993, conservation work has prevented the extinction of 48 bird and mammal species.
- Meanwhile, the Living Planet Report 2020 found that vertebrate animal populations declined by 68% over the past 50 years.
- The Cima Dome fire burned 43,000 acres of the Mojave National Preserve and killed 1.33 million Joshua trees.
Climate change and environmental politics
- Along with all the other ongoing crises, climate change has continued to be relevant, in the form of extreme weather. This week record-breaking wildfires raged throughout the West, forcing many people to evacuate and darkening the skies over the Bay Area and other coastal cities. The Creek Fire in California was fueled by trees killed in a five-year megadrought linked to climate change. Repeated intense fires could prevent forests from regenerating. As bad as this year's weather has been, it is going to get worse in future years.
- There are also record-breaking fires in the Arctic, and they are releasing carbon stored in northern peatlands.
- Heat waves are also deadly, especially when the overnight lows are high, and are another way that climate change exacerbates inequality. Heat waves have become more frequent and intense.
- Financial regulators are finally acknowledging that climate change is a risk to the American economy. Previous arguments than minimized the economic effects of climate change were based on flawed assumptions.
- There is a bipartisan bill to phase out hydrofluorocarbons, a potent greenhouse gas used in refrigerators and air conditioners.
- Aerial surveys show that Hurricane Laura released a significant amount of oil from the wells and refineries near Louisiana's coast.
- If current trends continue, the amount of plastic flowing into the ocean could triple in the next 20 years.
- Black Lives Matter protests have been met with excessive use of tear gas, and it is unclear how that will affect local waterways, which is a particular concern in Portland.
