Loose Feathers #779

Orange-crowned Warbler / Photo by Peter Pearsall/USFWS

Birds and birding news

• The US Fish and Wildlife Service wants to downlist Red-cockaded Woodpeckers from endangered to threatened. While their population is increasing, they still need constant habitat management to maintain a stable population. 
• The growth of eBird has changed birding by making information about birds and where to find them more accessible.
  
• A Rock Wren has been present in Maine for the past two weeks.
• A European study found a link between quality of life and local bird diversity.
• Prothonotary Warblers in Illinois raise more chicks in warmer springs.
• The Forest Service claims that post-wildfire logging will benefit Spotted Owls even though other ecologists argue that it is better to allow burned forests to regenerate naturally.
• While Spotted Owls have benefited to some extent from wildfires, at least 11 California Condors were killed and others injured by this year's wildfires.
  
• Here is an account of a close encounter with a Merlin.
• Deposits of bird poop are helping scientists estimate historical population levels of seabirds.
• Lab reports show that the birds in the mass mortality event in New Mexico were emaciated and had signs of organ failure.
  
• The pandemic is changing how Christmas Bird Counts are conducted. Some counts are cancelled, while others have eliminated count roundups and other group activities.

Science and nature blogging

• 10,000 Birds: Splitsville
• The Meadowlands Nature Blog: Don Torino’s Life in the Meadowlands: Birding in the Rain
• Avian Hybrids: Misconceptions and regressions: The evolution of bird brains 
• Chicago Ornithological Society: Dan's Feathursday Feature: White-breasted Nuthatch 
• On The Wing Photography: Finding Two Uncommon Birds In One Week – Rusty Blackbird And Common Grackle
• Appalachian Mountain Club: Subtler Sounds: Identifying and Recording Winter Bird Calls
  

Biodiversity and conservation

• Scientists are setting up a citizen science project to collect data on native bees in North America. Interested observers can learn more at the network's website.
• Protecting endangered species like forest elephants can contribute to fighting climate change.
• New research shows how closely connected trees are, which emphasizes the importance of mycorrhizal fungi to forest health.
  
• Hawaii is known among birders for its endemic birds; it is also home to many endemic land snails that are threatened.
• Colorado voters passed a proposition requiring the state government to create a plan to reintroduce wolves to the state.
  
• The latest update to the IUCN Red List shows the European Bison on its way to recovery but also extinctions of 31 other species.
• Tristan da Cunha will become a marine protected area.
• Wildfires are devastating Brazil's Pantanal, and the government is doing little to stop them.
• Arctic ground squirrels can recycle their own nutrients to survive cold winters.
• Stranded marine mammals in the US show signs of poisoning by industrial pollutants.
• Only about 40% of the world's forests are intact, which shows that preserving a certain percentage of land is not enough if the habitat is degraded.
• The wildlife trade of Hyacinth Macaws and Golden Lion Tamarins has increased as their populations recovered through conservation work.
• There will need to be fast work by the Biden administration for Gray Wolves to continue their recovery.
  

Climate change and environmental politics

• The Arctic continued its shift towards a warmer climate in 2020. Warming there contributes to changes elsewhere, including severe weather.
  
• One of the insidious ways that conservatives attack environmental protections is by changing the economic assumptions that underlie the cost-benefit analysis that justifies rule-making. These assumptions are important but less visible to voters. Currently the Trump administration is trying to reduce the value of pollution regulations to public health.
• The Trump administration refused to implement stronger standards on soot, which leaves the rules fromm 2012 in place. Soot (or particulate matter) has harmful effects on respiratory health and has a disproportionate effect on low-income and minority neighborhoods.
  
• It will take a lot of work to restore the EPA's effectiveness.
• Sea-level rise threatens New Jersey's affordable housing, which is often built in flood-prone areas.
• Audubon suggests five places where a Biden administration could undo damage from the Trump administration.
• Australia's record-breaking heat would be nearly impossible without climate change.
• It appears that the Nature Conservancy has been selling carbon offsets for preserving forests that were not actually under threat of being cut. Some of the projects, like maintaining the forests on Hawk Mountain, are worth doing anyway but do little to reduce carbon emissions.
• This year will be remembered for the pandemic, but it was also a year of climate disasters, including a record-setting thirty named storms in the Atlantic and five of the six largest wildfires in California's history.
• Peatlands store a massive amount of carbon, so converting them for other land use would turn them into a carbon source.
• The Break Free From Plastic campaign named Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Nestlé as contributing the largest amount of plastic waste found in cleanups.