Loose Feathers #622

Rough-legged Hawk / Photo by Tom Koerner/USFWS

Birds and birding news

• A study of Eurasian Blackbirds found that individuals that migrated south were more likely to survive until the next breeding season than individuals that stayed north.
• Scientists found an example of speciation through hybridization on Daphne Major in the Galapagos when a Large Cactus Finch produced fertile offspring with a Medium Ground Finch. Those young bred only with each other and thrived despite inbreeding.
• Researchers found good adult survival in most of the shorebird species they tested on their breeding grounds at Teshekpuk Lake and Arctic NWR in Alaska. The study will create a baseline for measuring how shorebirds respond to climate change and contribute to studies of overall shorebird declines. 
• Tiny geolocators and similar devices have opened up new ways to study how birds migrate and use habitats. 
• A key stopover site for the endangered Spoon-billed Sandpiper is at risk of development.
• Analysis of the DNA in seabird poop can tell what the seabirds are eating. One surprise from the study was that albatrosses are eating jellyfish.
• Bird photographers (and other wildlife photographers) can learn ethics by putting themselves in their subjects' places.
• Cooperative breeding may allow female birds to lay smaller eggs.
• The Ocellated Turkey, which lives in Mexico and Central America, has iridescent feathers and no wattle. 
• An exhibit at the Huntington in California recreates a small part of John Gould's Hummingbird House from the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London with specimens from Occidental College. 
• NPR broadcast an interview on crow funerals and other aspects of crow intelligence. 
• Earlier this year, the AOS recognized Northern and Hen Harriers as separate species. While the Northern Harrier is fairly secure in North America, Hen Harriers are subject to persecution in Europe.

Science and nature blogging

• 10,000 Birds: What is a Rail?
• Feathered Photography: A Guide To Aging Bald Eagles And How To Distinguish Immature Bald Eagles From Golden Eagles
• The Rattling Crow: Ringed Common Gull 
• ABA Blog: ABA Releases Much Anticipated Checklist Update
• Mia McPherson's On The Wing Photography: Side By Side Prairie and Peregrine Falcon Comparison
• Linda Murdock Photography: Portraits
• Bird Ecology Study Group: Down memory lane: Anting
• Bug Eric: Being Thankful for Bugs
• earthstar: Cirl bunting 

Environment and biodiversity

• Nebraska approved the Keystone XL pipeline, but not TransCanada's preferred route, which could slow down completion as the company needs to arrange a new set of easements. The route approved by the state would avoid more of the Sandhills region and Ogallala aquifer.
• Meanwhile, a spill elsewhere along the Keystone XL pipeline could be worse than initially reported.
• California and 10 other states are threatening legal action to stop fee increases proposed for 17 national parks. Public comment on the proposal to increase fees is open through December 22.
• Wildlife rehabilitation is a window into the many ways humans harm wildlife.
• While much of coastal Louisiana is losing land to the sea, the delta of the Atchafalaya River is an exception.

Loose Feathers #621

Tundra Swans / Photo by Tom Koerner/USFWS

Birds and birding news

• EBird announced that it will hide the locations for certain sensitive species from public output (though they will still appear in personal lists). 
• A new study shows that Passenger Pigeons had an unusual genome because of their extremely large population. 
• Scientists are still trying to find flocks of endangered Puerto Rican Parrots that disappeared during Hurricane Maria.
• Takahē numbers rose 13%, to 347 individuals and more than 100 breeding pairs.
• Some simple changes could greatly reduce the number of seabirds killed by longline fishing.
• Rehabilitation of oiled, sick, and injured birds has been an important part of saving Africans Penguins.
• A Snowy Owl was injured in Massachusetts after homeowners tried to chase it away.
• Feathers have their own scents that can be tracked by predators.
• Birds in California are nesting a week earlier than they did a century ago.
• An airplane landed in Florida with a Turkey Vulture stuck in its nose.

Science and nature blogging

• Project SNOWstorm: A New Season - and a Report from the Arctic 
• Nemesis Bird: Recap of the Long Island Corn Crake by Steve Brenner
• 10,000 Birds: The Case for Adding the U.S. Territories in the Caribbean to the ABA Area  
• Avian Ecologist: Comparison of Spectrogram Apps
• John Rakestraw: Taverner’s Cackling Goose vs. Ridgeway’s Cackling Goose
• The Rattling Crow: Allopreening moorhens
• Mia McPherson's On The Wing Photography: Adult White-crowned Sparrow Feeding on Rabbitbrush Seeds

Environment and biodiversity

• Carbon emissions rose after being flat for three straight years.
• At least 62 natural world heritage sites are already at risk from climate change.
• A new paper revises the taxonomy of European and Mediterranean wasps in the genus Polistes.
• While urban bat populations are not well-documented, bats seem to be thriving in cities like Washington, DC. 
• The Keystone XL pipeline faces one last regulatory hurdle for its route through Nebraska, and a decision is due soon. 
• This week an already-existing part of the Keystone XL pipeline spilled 210,000 gallons in South Dakota. 
• Natural forest regeneration seems to be better than restoration by humans.
• The seeds of some parasitic plants are spread by camel crickets.
• At low tide one can see cedar stumps left from when the Meadowlands was covered by Atlantic White Cedars.

Loose Feathers #620

Yellow-rumped Warbler / photo by me

Birds and birding news

• An amendment to a bill under consideration in the House of Representatives would weaken protections under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
• The recordings from Flight Calls of Migratory Birds by Evans and O'Brien are now available online.
• A Corn Crake appeared on a highway median on Long Island this week and was seen by many birders over a few days. Unfortunately, the bird was found dead yesterday after it was hit by a car. Its body will be preserved as a specimen at the American Museum of Natural History. 
• Over 400 Whooping Cranes are expected to winter at Aransas NWR this winter, and it seems conditions for them will be favorable.
• Reintroduction programs are starting to teach captive-bred birds to recognize natural predators, but finding the right strategy is tricky.
• Scientists studying hybridization among Yellow-rumped Warblers found the genes that make an Audubon's Warbler's throat yellow.
• Lesser Prairie-Chickens face new threats from wind energy development in addition to other forms of habitat loss.
• Most birds have monogamous pairs, but a handful of species have other arrangements. 
• A study food that cockatoos can match shapes when using tools.

Science and nature blogging

• methods.blog: Sticking Together or Drifting Apart? Quantifying the Strength of Migratory Connectivity
• Avian Hybrids: Throwback Thursday: Six Years with a Brewster’s Warbler.
• Mark Avery: Bitterns up, Corncrakes down
• Backyard and Beyond: After the Woodcock Storm  
• Feathered Photography: Five Image Series Of A Rousing Ruby-crowned Kinglet
• Linda Murdock Photography: Three Trips to Crab Road
• Bird Ecology Study Group: Purple Swamphen – Feeding behaviour, shoots
• Climate Law Blog: Scott Pruitt’s Attack on Scientists Serving on Advisory Boards Is Illegal

Environment and biodiversity

• Conservationists attempted to capture a few endangered Vaquitas for a captive-breeding program, but all the individuals they captured died. Less than 30 Vaquitas are left in the wild.
• The Fourth National Climate Assessment was released last Friday at the end of the day. The report contradicts much of the Trump administration's positions on the causes and likely severity of climate change. The second part of the report found that many predicted impacts are already happening.
• A satellite built to monitor ice loss in the Arctic was destroyed instead of launched into orbit.
• This year is likely to be the third-warmest on record. That would mean that the last three years would be the three warmest on record.
• Milkweed patches in farmland have 3.5 times the number of Monarch eggs as milkweed patches in natural areas, gardens, and roadsides, and smaller patches are preferred to larger ones.
• A driver in British Columbia watched a Cougar take down and kill and Mule Deer. 
• Clear-cutting in the boreal forest is undermining Canada's attempts to reduce its carbon emissions.
• A warm and dry summer at Mount Rainier gave a glimpse of how future alpine plant communities might respond to climate change.
• A new tunnel deep below Connecticut is intended to reduce sewage overflows after rainstorms.
• La Niña conditions are expected to last through the winter.

Loose Feathers #619

White-crowned Sparrow / Photo by Tom Koerner/USFWS

Birds and birding news

• Crows, like several other "spooky" creatures, do not deserve their poor reputation.
• If you lack a car, birding by public transportation is an alternative option (though this is easier in some places than others).
• Cryptic species like rails are an important part of wetlands but usually go unseen. 
• Researchers are finding more examples of female bird songs, most recently in Dark-eyed Juncos.
• The calls of Little Penguins are influenced by the habitats where they live.
• A study found that there are only two subspecies of Weka (a New Zealand rail) instead of six. 
• North American birders are asked to report color-banded Ipswich Sparrows, a subspecies of the Savannah Sparrow that winters along the East Coast.

Science and nature blogging

• Avian Hybrids: Che Figata! New studies on the ecology and evolution of a hybrid species, the Italian Sparrow
• ABA Blog: ICYMI: Open Mic: A New Field Mark for Differentiating Stints and Peeps
• Bird Ecology Study Group: Purple Swamphen – Feeding behaviour, Snails
• Pioneer Birding: MA - Pink-footed Goose in Gill! 
• Birding New Jersey: When Playback Goes Bad
• 10,000 Birds: Pink-headed Duck: The Search is On! 
• Mia McPherson's On The Wing Photography: Differences in Photographing Greater Yellowlegs in Florida and Utah
• Only Natural: Myrmecomorphy in action! 
• earthstar: The return of the tufties
• PLOS Ecology Community: Spooky Ecology 2017: The Weird and Wonderful
• The Digiscoper: Good fall for LeConte's! 
• Bug Eric: Ok, Save Some Bugs  
• Backyard and Beyond: Small Kites on the Loose

Environment and biodiversity

• A government climate science report concludes that it is extremely likely that humans are causing climate change and that annual global average temperatures will increase by 9°F if greenhouse gas emissions go unchecked. 
• Another study concludes that climate change is already affecting public health (though its methods are controversial).
• Here is an interesting story on the saga of Oregon's Imnaha wolf pack and the biologists managing it.
• Fragmenting forests limits the number of species that can live there and promotes edge species at the expense of deep forest species.
• The Trump administration has proposed a fee increase to $70 per carload at 17 national parks, which could make visiting the parks unaffordable for many people. If you oppose this increase, please submit a comment to NPS by November 23.
• President Trump recently told Senator Hatch that he would reduce the size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments, but nothing official has been announced yet. Paleontologists fear that mining at Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument would destroy fossil beds.
• The House passed legislation that would gut protections for endangered species in national forests.
• Parks and reserves in the tropics can help reduce the effects of climate change.
• Butterfliers are concerned by how many migratory butterflies like the Monarch are staying north this fall. The Monarch Monitoring Project in Cape May will keep counting butterflies into November this year.
• A study last year identified 301 mammals most at risk from overhunting.
• Cliven Bundy and his sons are finally being tried for an armed confrontation with federal public lands officials.

Loose Feathers #618

Bald Eagle / Photo by USFWS/Volunteer Charlie Lister 2017

Birds and birding news

• Numerous threatened and endangered species have been affected by natural disasters this year, including the Mexican Spotted Owl and Attwater's Prairie Chicken. The Florida Grasshopper Sparrow and Imperial Amazon were among the endangered birds affected by Hurricanes Irma and Maria.
• Genome mapping is changing the way that bird species are classified, but genetics are not necessarily the only way to define a species.
• Northern Spicebush berries are strongly preferred by migrating Gray Catbirds over non-native berries.
• Golden-crowned Sparrow chicks can recognized the song of their species from the first note.
• Endangered Ridgway's Hawks thrived after being translocated to set up an additional population in a new protected area on Hispaniola.
• Here are some suggestions for native trees that have beautiful fall foliage and provide food and shelter for birds. 
• The endangered Helmeted Hornbill, on verge of extinction, was found at a new site outside of their known range in Borneo.

Science and nature blogging

Environment and biodiversity

• The Interior Department wants to hike admission fees at 17 prominent national parks to $70 per carload (or $30 per pedestrian or cyclist). There is a public comment period on this proposal until November 23.
• Be careful to remove GPS or specific location information from photos of rare or endangered species posted online.
• The Trump administration wants to sell oil and gas drilling leases for 77 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico, which is basically all of the Gulf that has not been leased yet. The Gulf of Mexico is still feeling the effects of the Deepwater Horizon spill. Even without a spill that magnitude, we can expect the sale to result in more small spills (with are still harmful) as well as more greenhouse gases being put into the atmosphere. 
• The Commerce Department has written a (so far secret) report on whether to open national marine sanctuaries to oil drilling. 
• New research suggests that the worst-case scenarios for sea level rise could happen sooner than expected.
• Without rapid climate action, the New York City area could see Sandy-like disasters every 5 years by 2050. While a lot of work has gone into recovery and future resiliency, regional efforts to address sea level rise have lagged behind.
• The EPA prevented three of its scientists from speaking at a climate change conference in Rhode Island. The incident was the latest in a large trend of preventing the agency's climate data from reaching the public.
• Colombian scientists are planning expeditions to catalogue biodiversity in areas that were previously inaccessible due to the country's long-running civil war.
• The budget resolution contains a provision fast-tracking votes on selling off public lands.
• NOAA recommends keeping the North Atlantic Right Whale on the endangered species list.