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| Yellow-headed Blackbird / Photo by Tom Koerner/USFWS |
Birds and birding news
- A proposed funding formula would direct federal conservation money towards endangered or threatened species with the best chance of recovery. Under that formula, species that continued to decline despite intervention, like the Northern Spotted Owl, would see their funding cut, while others like the Hawaiian Crow and Indiana Bat would get more.
- Eggs come in a variety of shapes, from smoothly rounded eggs like a chicken's to ones that are much more pointed at one end. Pointier eggs are generally produced by stronger fliers, which may be a result of a bird's internal anatomy.
- Analysis of carbon isotopes in Bobolinks' feathers shows that while they eat other grasses in the winter, they eat mostly rice just before they migrate north. This has the advantage of providing them more calories in preparation for migration, but also exposes them to more pesticides and possibly persecution by farmers.
- Mangrove swamps in Indonesia are important stopover sites for migratory shorebirds but are being lost to palm oil plantations and agriculture.
- An expedition to the Atacama Desert in Chile found nesting grounds for the Ringed Storm-Petrel, whose breeding sites were previously unknown.
- Birds following army ants cooperate when foraging.
- Gulls feeding at landfills may transport nutrients that cause algal blooms to nearby waterways.
Science and nature blogging
- Mia McPherson's On The Wing Photography: Approaching Chicks Too Close – When Something Should be Said or Done
- awkward botany: Summer of Weeds: Pineapple Weed
Environment and biodiversity
- This week is National Pollinator Week. See that link or the resources at the Xerces Society for ideas on how to help pollinators, which include a lot more than honey bees. Or see Audubon's recommendations for bird-friendly native plants.
- Home Depot has promised to stop selling plants treated with neonicotinoids but will continue to sell off remaining stock until next year.
- The common Cabbage White butterfly has an interesting reproductive life, from ultraviolet wings to chewable spermatophores.
- An experiment in California used recordings of political pundits to test how mountain lions respond to human voices near their food stashes. When the mountain lions heard the recordings, they ran away, regardless of whether the voices were male or female, or liberal or conservative.
- Grizzly Bears in and around Yellowstone National Park will lose their endangered species protections; other populations in the lower 48 states may follow but will stay protected for now.
- Even with emissions cuts, the number of days over 95°F is expected to rise sharply in the next century.
- A new report details the dysfunction and demoralization inside Scott Pruitt's EPA.
- Poland wants to strip the Białowieża forest of its UNESCO natural heritage protections to make logging easier. Białowieża is one of the last surviving intact old forests in Europe and has unique plant and animal life.
- Quebec's Val-d’Or caribou herd has dwindled to 15 individuals after intensive logging of their habitat.
- The US removed 17 sites from the UNESCO Biosphere Reserves program, while other countries added 23.
- Antarctica's habitats are now threatened by invasive plants and insects that can survive with warmer temperatures.
- Costa Rica designated a new marine protected area on its Pacific coast.
- Researchers sampled wetlands in Washington, DC, to search for Stygobromus hayi, the Hay's Spring Amphipod, a species endemic to the city.
