Loose Feathers #769

Black-crowned Night-Heron / Photo by Grayson Smith/USFWS

Birds and birding news

• The outcome of the November election will affect bird conservation, both directly through enforcement of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and Endangered Species Act and indirectly through protections for public lands and water and action on climate change. The link explains some of the issues at stake.
• Some American Robins migrate long distances between their wintering and breeding grounds, while others stay in the same area year-round. A research project is currently tracking their movements.
  
• The White Stork Project is tracking the migration routes taken by captive-bred storks released in the UK. So far storks have been recorded as far south as Morocco.
• Pinyon Jays and Clark's Nutcrackers use similar habitats and both cache food to survive the winter.
• Melting ice revealed a lost colony of mummified Adelie Penguins that were frozen a millennium or more ago.
  
• Last year there were 85 incidents of birds being killed to support grouse hunting in the UK.
  

Science and nature blogging

• Arachnofiles: Arachnews: September 30, 2020.
• Backyard and Beyond: Sad Underwing 
• Ohio Birds and Biodiversity: Two cool and unusual moths
• On The Wing Photography: One Funny Snowy Egret Photo 
• Avian Hybrids: Non-coding DNA drives the evolution of avian beak morphology
• mocosocoBirds: Red Phalarope at Lake Parsippany; other records of interest – Sep. 26, 2020
• corvidresearch: Bill overhang in corvids 
  

Biodiversity and conservation

• Captive breeding has restored pygmy rabbits to the Columbia Basin, but the wild population is still vulnerable to wildfires and habitat fragmentation.
• Some beetles can withstand cyanide gas released by their millipede prey.
  

Climate change and environmental politics

• This week's presidential debate featured a question from a moderator about climate change for the first time since 2008, probably in response to public pressure.
  
• A 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court will make it much harder to act on climate change and other environmental issues.
• The Biden campaign made some concessions to activists who want to keep fossil executives and lobbyists out of his transition team and (potential) administration.
• Climate change is creating a warm layer near the ocean's surface that blocks the normal cycle of carbon, oxygen, and nutrients between the surface and the ocean floor.
  
• Here are four environment-related ballot issues in this November's election.
  
• Melting glaciers could lead to landslides in places where a glacier is supporting unstable rock formations.
• Environmental activists have noted a connection between police brutality and air pollution.
• Extreme wildfires make forests into carbon sources instead of carbon sinks, which makes reforestation less reliable for fighting climate change.