Loose Feathers #791

Common Grackle / Photo by Diana Cosby/USFWS

Birds and birding news

• The capture and selling of wild birds for their song is driving many Asian songbirds to extinction.
• Spring is a great time to start birding, and here are some recommendations for getting started. Here is another column on becoming a birder.
  
• A new book considers biodiversity loss in terms of diminished sound, especially bird songs. 
• Spotted Owls benefit from a mix of burned and old-growth habitats, and that balance is disturbed when timber companies do salvage logging or thin old-growth forests. British Columbia has deferred logging where Canada's last Spotted Owls are nesting.
  
• A wind energy company is funding the captive breeding program for California Condors to replace any that are killed by its turbines.
• A study using GPS trackers found that female Northern Gannets traveled farther than males in search of food for their chicks. Males and females also foraged in different places and at different times of day.
• Two Bald Eagles have hatched at Duke Farms in Somerset County, New Jersey.
• Powerful Owls will roost in urban areas but need more connection between habitats to stay there.
• Activists in Texas are building a Lights Out program in Austin. Turning out lights helps protect birds that migrate at night.
• A Common Eider colony in Nunavut developed herd immunity to avian cholera after an outbreak in 2006.
• A new book documents life in an Emperor Penguin colony with photos.
  

Science and nature blogging

• awkward botany: To Fruit or Not to Fruit – The Story of Mast Seeding
• Vermont Center for Ecostudies: Field Guide to March 2021
• Avian Hybrids: Splitting the Long-tailed Rosefinch into a Chinese and a Siberian species  
• Sibley Guides: Distinguishing the subspecies of Redwing
• The Urban Nature Enthusiast: Snow Crows
  

Biodiversity and conservation

• Hunters in Wisconsin killed at least 216 wolves over three days last week. The hunt was the first since the Trump administration removed the Gray Wolf from the Endangered Species List.
• Butterfly populations west of the Rockies have declined by 1.6% each year since 1977. According to the study, climate change was the primary cause.
  
• Another study reported that British moths have declined by one third over the past 50 years.
• North Carolina Candid Critters, a citizen-science project using camera traps, recorded 120,671 wildlife observations of 30 mammal and 3 bird species over three years. 
• A study argues that limiting the spread of invasive species is more important than trying to eradicate ones that are already established.
• This Twitter thread shows a battle between a Golden Eagle, Great Horned Owl, Mule Deer, and Coyote that was captured on a trail camera in Washington.
• Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs have been found in Great Britain for the first time.
• Deforestation is increasing in Indonesia as it moves east into the Papua region, which had been largely untouched until recently.
• Idaho is likely to remove limits on hunting mountain lions.
• Neonicotinoids have been found in deer across Minnesota.
  

Climate change and environmental politics

• Drilling in Area 1002 of the Arctic NWR threatens to disrupt caribou migration and grazing patterns that help keep carbon stored in the permafrost. 
• Carbon emissions must be cut in half by 2030, but pledges under the Paris agreement amount to less than 1% of emissions.
• The Biden administration is recalculating the social cost of carbon, which is the basis for cost-benefit analyses for climate-related regulations.
  
• An Indigenous land defender was sentenced to jail for protesting the Trans Mountain pipeline in British Columbia.
• The Sierra Club (like many other environmental organizations) is re-evaluating its history, particularly its exclusion of Native Americans.
• During Deb Haaland's confirmation hearing, Republican senators used a debunked study by the American Petroleum Institute to criticize her views on fossil fuel leases and climate change.
• Last year's wildfires were strongly connected to climate change, as explained by NASA.
  
• The Delaware River Basin Commission passed a ban on fracking within the Delaware watershed over heavy opposition from fossil fuel companies. The commission is still deciding what to do about water withdrawals.
• Electric vehicles are better for the environment than gas-powered vehicles, but how much better depends on factors like how electricity is generated and the sources for raw materials.
• Fossil fuel groups like the American Gas Association are lobbying state governments to prevent cities like Austin from switching to renewable energy.
• The House of Representatives passed a new public lands conservation bill that would create new wilderness areas and stop new mining around the Grand Canyon, among other things. It is unclear if the bill will pass the Senate.
• Environmental groups are asking the Biden administration to remove sections of the border wall that block wildlife migration routes or separate Indigenous cultural sites.
  
• There is a surprisingly high amount of microplastic in Raritan Bay and in the Raritan and Passaic Rivers; stormwater runoff seems to be the main source.
• Annapolis is suing two dozen fossil fuel companies because sea level rise is threatening the city.