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| American Woodcock / Photo by Jim Hudgins/USFWS |
Birds and birding news
- Over the past several decades Peregrine Falcons have returned from near-extinction to rule urban landscapes, where they nest on skyscrapers and bridges.
- Birds with flexible nesting requirements can thrive in the suburbs (sometimes increasing bird diversity there), but ones with more specific requirements have to look elsewhere when a place is developed.
- Early spring is a good time to look for migrating waterbirds.
- Male Common Cuckoos can distinguish the calls of their neighbors from those of strangers.
- When food is plentiful, adult Galapagos Penguins continue to feed their young after they fledge.
- Poachers on Cyprus killed 2.3 million birds during fall migration in 2016. A British military base was the site of 800,000 of the killings.
- Bald Eagles and other raptors are at risk from lead poisoning from spent ammunition.
- The proposed federal budget would cease funding the cleanup of the Great Lakes, which has helped bird populations recover in the region.
Science and nature blogging
- The Spruce Blog: A Level-headed Look at Feeding Birds: Consequences and Benefits
- Mia McPherson's On The Wing Photography: Go Easy on Adding Saturation in Bird Photography – Over Processing Mistakes
- The Prairie Ecologist: Should We Manage for Rare Species or Species Diversity?
- Feathered Photography: Another Meadowlark Series (but for me this one’s special)
- ABA Blog: A Tale of Two Gulls
- Birding the day away !!: Andean Gull ~ Cusco Region, Peru - Feb '17
- The Birdist: Cool Snowy Egret Behavior in Florida
- The Meadowlands Nature Blog: Don Torino’s Life in the Meadowlands: The Decline of the Wood Thrush – And How We Can Help
- The Rattling Crow: Carrion crows dropping mussels
- A Snail's Eye View: The Second Worst Birdwatcher in the World
- Linda Murdock Photography: Courtship Roseate Spoonbill Style
Environment and biodiversity
- The first climate model was published in 1967, and its major prediction, that doubling the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would result in 2°C of warming, has held up in the 50 years since then.
- It remains to be seen what Zinke's Interior Department will look like and how conflicts among his stated priorities will be resolved.
- Two bills that claim to promote transparency at the EPA would actually hamstring the agency.
- Loss of milkweed habitat to agriculture may not be the only problem affecting Monarch butterflies; a lack of nectar plants during fall migration could also be causing declines.
- Spiders eat 400-800 million tons of prey each year, most of which are insects but also includes small vertebrates like fish.
- The new Stone Leaf-litter Frog was discovered in northern Vietnam.
- Kingsnakes are notable for applying much more pressure to their prey (including other snakes) than most snakes do.
- A British butterfly collector was charged with killing several specimens of Britain's rarest butterfly, the endangered Large Blue.
- A wolf family is missing in California.
- NJ DEP adds wooden barriers around four ponds in Wharton State Forest to block ATVs from driving through them.
