Loose Feathers #773

Ruby-crowned Kinglet / Photo by Peter Pearsall/USFWS

Birds and birding news

• Gentoo and Chinstrap Penguins and threatened by both climate change and krill fishing, and the creation of marine protected areas to restrict krill fishing would benefit penguins.
• Nine insect-eating bird species in the Amazon have declined since the 1980s, probably because of climate change. 
• A study found that 17.4% of material in vulture pellets was synthetic, with the level of plastic debris at 17.3% in Black Vultures and 24.5% in Turkey Vultures.
• More landbirds migrate through the eastern than western US in the fall, mainly because of geography. Eastern birds also migrate farther than their western counterparts.
  
• A new study is looking at how coastal marsh birds respond to tropical cyclones.
  
• In addition to the irruption of Red-breasted Nuthatches, Pine Siskins, and others on the East Coast, there is a separate irruption of birds from the Rocky Mountains onto the Great Plains.
  
• Fossils from Antarctica belonged to a huge extinct seabird, larger than modern albatrosses.
• Northern Saw-whet Owls make different vocalizations in the winter than in the breeding season.
  
• Chickadees are slow to come to feeders if they think predators are nearby.
• Migratory birds that eat plant-based diets follow seasonal changes in vegetation, but there is less of a link for raptors and insect-eating birds.
• Egrets are less likely to mate when exposed to mercury pollution in the Everglades.
  

Science and nature blogging

• On The Wing Photography: I Am Never NOT Looking For Birds
• corvidresearch: Addressing anti-Indigenous behaviors in corvid fandom
• Avian Hybrids: A common species with a complex history: The evolutionary story of the Great Tit 
  
• CT Audubon: Daily Bird: Evening Grosbeak
• Finch Research Network: Irruption Alert: Evening Grosbeaks are moving in largest numbers in 20+ years
• Feathered Photography: Canvasbacks – Is It Love Or Is It War?  
• Association of Field Ornithologists: Fledgling Bachman’s Sparrows in a longleaf pine ecosystem: survival, movements, and habitat selection
  

Biodiversity and conservation

• USFWS is proposing a new rule to remove the Gray Wolf from Endangered Species Act protections. Because of the abbreviated comment period, the rule could be finalized by the end of the year. While the wolf populations has rebounded from its historic lows, it still has not returned to its historic range and faces the threat of unsustainable hunting.
  
• Some spiders can hear by sensing airborne vibrations with their hairs and leg joints.
• The USFWS refused again to list wolverines under the Endangered Species Act.
• Protecting nature, both by preserving habitats and stopping the wildlife trade, could prevent future pandemics that pass from wildlife to humans.
• Wild fruit production is falling in Gabon, which is reducing the food available for large mammals like forest elephants.
• Fin whales sing multiple song types instead of just one as previously thought.
• Remoras can move around on a blue whale's skin without falling off.
• A study in Guam showed the value of endangered trees to the forests where they survive.
  

Climate change and environmental politics

• This year will be one of the hottest on record despite the recent start of a La Niña, which usually moderates global temperatures.
• Tuesday is Election Day in the U.S., and a Democratic victory would give a potential Biden administration the chance to rejoin the Paris Agreement and set new emissions targets.
• Climate change is on the ballot, both indirectly in elections for political offices and directly through ballot questions.
• Political journalists have not caught on to the fact that Biden's climate agenda, which emphasizes a transition to clean energy, is actually popular.
  
• Frozen methane in the Arctic Ocean is melting and starting to be released into the atmosphere. Methane release is a dangerous feedback mechanism that will accelerate global warming.
• Dust storms are becoming more common on the Great Plains and could lead to a new Dust Bowl.
• In anticipation of a loss, the Trump administration is speeding up regulatory changes. This week they opened half of Tongass National Forest to logging by exempting it from the roadless rule. Tongass is one of the world's largest intact temperate rainforests.
• New York's plastic bag ban is going into effect.
• Recent surveys confirm that huge amounts of DDT and its byproducts were dumped off the coast of California in the mid-20th century.
• Staten Island residents are fighting to stop a development that would pave over a wetland that helped protect a neighborhood from flooding during Superstorm Sandy.
• A Canadian fossil fuel company is planning to drill for oil and gas in the Okavango region of Namibia and Botswana, which poses a threat to both wildlife and public health.
• Indigenous activists have been protesting border wall construction, which destroys important natural and cultural sites and divides families on opposite sides of the border.
• A bill would protect an ancient underwater forest off the coast of Alabama; the remains of the forest date to the last Ice Age when sea levels were 400 feet lower.