Loose Feathers #796

Blue-winged Teal / Photo by Jim Hudgins/USFWS

Birds and birding news

• Swift Parrots are endangered by deforestation, and new rules to protect their habitat may not be enough to save them.
  
• Here is an interview with the head of the USFWS migratory bird program.
• Piping Plovers are faring better on beaches in New England than in the Mid-Atlantic and South, which is probably linked to their selection of nest sites.
• Chicago added the stretch of beach preferred by its Piping Plovers to an adjacent natural area.
  
• Radar can be used to predict nights with heavy flights and encourage people to take actions like turning off lights to protect migratory birds.
• A Spanish energy company was accused of causing unnecessary electrocutions of raptors by not insulating its wires correctly.
• Salmonella has spread via bird feeders in at least 8 states; take down and wash feeders if you see sick or dead birds around them.
  

Science and nature blogging

• Avian Hybrids: A genomic perspective on the classic hybrid zone between Baltimore and Bullock’s Oriole
• In Defense of Plants: Twinspurs & Their Pollinators
• On The Wing Photography: Spotting A Short-eared Owl In The Distance 
  

Biodiversity and conservation

• Some writers see the Brood X cicada emergence as a metaphor for ending a year of social distancing. Entering sightings into the Cicada Safari app can help scientists track the emergence.
• Using imidacloprid to kill hemlock woolly adelgids may harm the salamanders that depend on hemlock forests in Appalachia.
• The Asian Small-clawed Otter has become endangered because too many individuals are being captured for the pet trade.
  

Climate change and environmental politics

• The Mauna Loa Observatory recorded carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at more than 420 parts per million for the first time ever. The new record means that the Earth is halfway to doubling pre-industrial carbon levels, which would cause a global temperature rise between 2.3 and 4.5°C.
  
• Politicians have largely avoided the subject of how to manage the retreat from the coastlines made necessary by sea level rise, and some places are still developing vulnerable coastal real estate. 
• Because the national monument designation was stripped from most of Bears Ears early in the Trump administration, the site has had a boom in visitation without the resources to manage it.
  
• Hurricane Zeta nearly wrecked Transocean Deepwater Asgard, a drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, which would have caused a spill larger than the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
  
• Japan has set a more ambitious goal under the Paris treaty of a 40% cut in carbon emissions by 2030 and being carbon neutral by 2050.
  
• One third of Antarctica's ice shelves could collapse if there is 4°C of warming.
  
• Beach Sweeps coordinated by Clean Ocean Action have been finding lots of discarded PPE in addition to the trash that they normally collect. Plastic makes up 72% of trash collected during cleanups.