Loose Feathers #493

Marsh Wren / Photo by Tom Koerner/USFWS

Birds and birding news

• North American shorebirds have declined rapidly over the past several decades.
• Greater Prairie-Chickens are more likely to abandon leks near wind turbines.
• A new feathered bird ancestor was found in China.
• A study traced the evolution of domed nests to a transition to nesting on the ground instead of in trees.
• The World Series of Birding will take place this Saturday, May 9. The event will coincide with eBird's global big day.

Science and nature blogging

• Jeff Ollerton's Biodiversity Blog: Urban bee diversity – a new study
• The Barley Birder: Twitching the Hudsonian Godwit in Somerset
• The Birdist: Google Street View Birding: Antarctica Part I: The Falkland Islands

Environment and biodiversity

• Prolonged drought is having a severe impact on many wildlife populations in the American west.
• The newly-elected premier in Alberta has promised to reduce the province's carbon emissions and end lobbying for the Keystone XL pipeline.
• Volunteers are needed to help monitor horseshoe crabs in Raritan Bay.

Loose Feathers #492

Mountain Bluebird / Photo by Tom Koerner/USFWS

Birds and birding news

• Next Saturday, May 9, eBird is calling for a Global Big Day to record as many of the world's bird species as possible. The event coincides with the World Series of Birding, which is held each year in New Jersey. (I will be participating in the WSB as a member of the Middlesex Merlins.)
• State-owned buildings in New York will shut off their lights during peak migration periods to reduce bird fatalities. 
• Monk Parakeets in both the US and Europe come from the same small area and have lower genetic diversity than birds in their native range.
• A study of Golden-winged Warblers tested a new method for tracking songbirds on their migratory paths. (The journal article can be read here.)
• The spring hunting season in Malta was ended early after a Eurasian Kestrel was shot and landed in a schoolyard during recess.
• Around 30-37 million acres of forest is lost each year, which puts additional stress on songbirds that depend on forest habitat.
• A town in Massachusetts is trying to increase access for ORVs while still protecting Piping Plovers.
• New territories for the endangered Long-billed Tailorbird were found in Tanzania.
• Spring is a good time to get back into birding. 
• Project SNOWstorm has updates on two owls whose transmitters stopped working.

Science and nature blogging

• A Way To Garden: the tick-borne disease equation, with dr. rick ostfeld of cary institute
• Not Exactly Rocket Science: Chinese Dinosaur Had Bat-Like Wings and Feathers
• Flatbush Gardener: Pine Barrens Soil Horizons

Environment and biodiversity

• A recent study found that pesticide treatments harmed native bees far more than honey bees, which highlights the need for more study and conservation of native bees. And those native bees are beautiful.
• A British entomologist declared yesterday World Robberfly Day. You can read about robberfly biology at that link or look at the photos people posted on Twitter under the #worldrobberflyday hashtag.
• There is a new key for the diverse rove beetle family (Staphylinidae) in North America.
• The Field Museum has a guide to common spring wildflowers for the Chicago area.
• Moths launch themselves into flight by jumping and then flapping. You can watch video of their takeoffs at the link.
• Creating wildlife corridors is essential to the conservation of mountain lions in southern California.
• Graffiti artists are now tagging sites in national parks.
• One of New Jersey's rarest flowers is the federally-protected swamp pink.

Loose Feathers #491

Marbled Godwit / Photo by Alex Galt (USFWS)

Birds and birding news

• The Migratory Bird Treaty Act will likely see major changes in how it is enforced; the main point seems to be to carve out a way for energy companies to avoid fines for killing birds.
• The Ivanpah solar plant likely killed about 3,500 birds from 83 species in 1st year of operation.
• Birds primarily use two wing postures as fly around or through obstacles.
• A Cooper's Hawk in Vancouver was full of flame retardants when it died.
• A study found out how grebes run on the water during courtship displays.
• According to one study, Seattle residents spend $120 million per year on birds.
• Another study found that urban residents tend to underestimate the species diversity of birds in their neighborhoods. 
• Dead sea lions along the California coast are providing a feast for California Condors.
• While this year spring is running later than usual in the eastern US, the big question is how birds, insects, and plants will respond to earlier springs caused by climate change.
• The USFWS will not extend endangered protection to the Mono Basin population of Greater Sage-Grouse. A listing decision on the species as a whole is due later in the year.
• Hawk Rise Sanctuary in Linden, New Jersey, is an urban oasis with surprisingly good birding.

Science and nature blogging

• Biodiversity in Focus Blog: Who’s really pollen their weight: Bees, or Flies?
• ABA Blog: Birding is Hard
• Bourbon, Bastards, and Birds.: The Fall of the Bird Police: Death by EBird?
• Arthropod Ecology: Beetles from the North 
• Extinction Countdown: Should Humpback Whales Be Removed from the Endangered Species List?
• Living Alongside Wildlife: Two Species of Cottonmouths? This Scientist Says Yes!
• Tails of Birding: Nectar Feedering Warbler
• Bird Ecology Study Group: Baya Weaver – more nectar feeding
• American Scientist: From the Archives: Scientists’ Conversations About Rachel Carson and DDT, 1944 to Today

Environment and biodiversity

• The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded five years ago this week; the well would remain open for 87 days, spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico all the while. A key element of the story was the mendaciousness and ineptitude of BP and the government. The Smithsonian Ocean Portal will retrace the progress of the spill this summer at its blog and Twitter account.
• Here is a photo essay of flying foxes emerging from their nocturnal roost.
• There will be a bioblitz at Watchung Reservation on June 12-13. Observers of all specialties and skill levels are needed.
• Here is an interactive map of street trees in New York City.
• Trout lilies flower and disappear soon after.

Loose Feathers #490

Yellow-headed Blackbirds / Photo by Tom Koerner/USFWS

Birds and birding news

• Resident bird populations around Fukushima have declined since the nuclear disaster.
• A three-year project is reintroducing Northern Bobwhite to the New Jersey Pinelands.
• A study of African birds shows that they are full of malaria parasite diversity.
• Spring hunting will remain legal in Malta after its supporters won a referendum with a slim majority. See also BirdLife's statement via Mark Avery's blog.
• Birders in Taiwan are preparing for a big day competition.
• A rare melanistic Greater Flamingo has been observed on the island of Cyprus.

Science and nature blogging

• Sibley Guides: The mysterious sounds of the American Woodcock
• ABA Blog: 2015 AOU Check-list Proposals, Part 3
• Coyote Crossing: Orthodoxy in the Climate Movement: Franzen and His Deniers
• Morningside Hawks: Manhattan Hawk Nest Checklist, 2015
• 10,000 Birds: Ghana – Rainforest Birding on the Brink by Adam Riley
• Laelaps: The Call of the Terror Bird
• North Coast Diaries: The phenological margins
• Ben Cruachan: An Avian Alphabet, A – H.
• A More Human Nature: The Anthropocene as Neoliberal Environmentalism

Environment and biodiversity

• Wildfires emit more greenhouse gases than assumed in California climate targets.
• Insecticide contamination of waterways is worse than previously reported.
• Mendocino County in California has suspended its contract with USDA Wildlife Services in the wake of a lawsuit charging that the contract violates state law.
• Much attention has been given to California's water problems, but the Rio Grande watershed is also severely strained by the drought.
• The Northern Long-eared Bat has been listed as a threatened species.
• Climate change will affect inland areas like Morris County as well as coastal ones.
• A previous mass extinction event seems to have been linked to rapid ocean acidification.

Loose Feathers #489

Northern Pintails / Photo by Tom Koerner (USFWS)

Birds and birding news

• A Golden-winged Warbler was banded and fitted with a geolocator in Illinois and then recaptured in Nicaragua.
• Feral chickens on Kauai have a complex genetic history.
• A study suggests the presence of urban birds has economic value.
• Darwin's finches remain a prime example of how diverse species can arise from a common ancestor.
• Black Vultures (the Eurasian kind) have returned to southern Portugal.
• A new study gathered information on the life history of the Black Tinamou, one of the least-studied tinamous. 
• A study of shorebirds that winter in South Africa found that some long-distance migrants had declined but that the declines were probably not due to local conditions.
• Collisions between birds and aircraft may be reduced by adjusting lights to meet birds' visual systems.
• A new terror bird fossil suggests that they had the ability to hear low-frequency sounds.

Science and nature blogging

• Bourbon, Bastards, and Birds.: A Shrike of Two Tails (***MEGA***)
• Extinction Countdown: Amazing Discovery: Nearly Extinct Bird Found Breeding in Japan
• 10,000 Birds: Pine Warbler in Forest Park, Queens, New York
• Anything Larus: Adult Kumlien's: Hammond
• Bug Eric: Springtime Tiger Beetles
• The Artful Amoeba: Wonderful Things: The Amazing Mimicry of the Mummy Berry Fungus
• Arthropod Ecology: What to do with a spider in your fruit
• Greg Laden: Bully for Brontosaurus

Environment and biodiversity

• A study found that US protected land does less than it should to protect biodiversity. Most protected land is in the West while numerous biodiversity hotspots go unprotected in the East.
• California's farmers have been pumping out groundwater at such a rate that the aquifers may never recover.
• Water scarcity in California is not caused by s specific crop (like almonds) but by the system in which water is allocated.
• This is the best time of year to hear Spring Peepers and other vocalizing amphibians.
• Bighorn Sheep are being reintroduced to Yosemite.