Loose Feathers #786

Rough-legged Hawk / Photo by Tom Koerner/USFWS

Birds and birding news

• Great Blue Herons in British Columbia have been nesting near Bald Eagles to reduce nest predation. The herons may lose some chicks to the nearby eagle pair, but the eagles will chase other predators away.
  
• The COVID-19 pandemic kept visitors away from the Swedish island of Stora Karlso in 2020. The absence of visitors increased the numbers of eagles on the island, which spooked the island's murres enough that they had a poor breeding season.
• Migratory birds on the West Coast are heavily dependent on wetland habitats in California’s Central Valley and Mexico's Colorado River Delta.
• A new study assessed the "Patagonia Picnic Table Effect" and found that birders are no more likely to find other rare birds when they are chasing a reported rare bird nearby.
• In some places, a cemetery may be the best place for birding, but it can result in conflicts with mourners and other visitors.
  
• A study measured how willing robins are to accept non-egg objects in their nests.
• A new set of restrictions on the herring fishery should benefit Maine's Atlantic Puffins.
• The programs to protect migratory birds from Alberta's tailings ponds lack transparency and may protect fewer birds than advertised.
  
• Harpy Eagles may have smaller ranges than current models estimate.
• Park rangers found 750 dead pelicans at a sanctuary in Senegal. The cause has not been determined.
  
• On Wednesday a Snowy Owl spent a day in Central Park, the first to do so since 1890. For more pictures, see here.
  

Science and nature blogging

• Feathered Photography: Pied-billed Grebe Mystery Behavior
• The Prairie Ecologist: Milkweed Pollination: A Series of Fortunate Events 
• Matthew R. Halley: Conodoguinet Cave: American Ornithology’s Forgotten Sanctuary
• On The Wing Photography: Male American Kestrel Chest Plumage Variation
• awkward botany: Winter Trees and Shrubs: Netleaf Hackberry  
• Avian Hybrids: A genomic continuum from feral to wild Red Junglefowl in Singapore

Biodiversity and conservation

• Many shark and ray populations have crashed over the past 50 years, mainly due to overfishing and bycatch.
• Swinhoe’s softshell turtle, the world's rarest turtle, may still escape extinction since a female survives in captivity and more of the species may exist in the wild.
• The Fish and Wildlife Service is failing to protect Florida panther habitat from development even though habitat protection is necessary for the panther's survival. This is an example of a larger problem of the agency letting politics and money guide its decisions.
• Here is a sample of species that were declared extinct in 2020.
  

Climate change and environmental politics

• This week Biden issued a batch of executive orders concerning climate change and environmental policy, including ending subsidies and pausing new leases on public lands for fossil fuels, replacing gas with electric power for federal government vehicles, a commitment to the 30x30 conservation initiative, and making environmental justice a component of all environmental policy. Here is an analysis by Grist. The program faces opposition even within his own party, so how much can happen legislatively remains to be seen.
• Revising the social cost of carbon is one of the most important changes since it will help justify future regulations.
• The executive orders also mandated a review of the status of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments, with the intention of restoring their original borders.
  
• The January 6 insurrection had connections to anti-environmental groups like Timber Unity.
• Biden stopped construction of the border wall, but much more is needed to repair the damage. 
• The fossil fuel industry routinely overestimates the costs and job losses due to climate policy, particularly with regard to winding down fossil fuel extraction.
  
• Recycling has environmental benefits — reducing carbon emissions and garbage sent to landfills — but the current system is not working well. A bill in New York would make manufacturers to pay for recycling.
• Glaciers in the Himalayas are melting this winter, even though melting has usually stopped by now. Temperatures at the Everest base camp were above freezing for eight days this month.
• The melting at Everest is part of a global trend; the Earth has lost 1.2 trillion tons of ice per year over the past decade. The melting has kept pace with the worst-case scenarios for sea-level rise in the IPCC reports, and even those might be underestimated.