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| Osprey / Photo by Tom Koerner/USFWS |
Birds and birding news
- A new section of border wall is set to be built in Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge in Texas. The site was selected because the federal government already owned the land. Building the wall and its associated infrastructure would basically destroy the refuge, which is a major birding destination and home to over 400 bird species. At this point, it is not clear what birders can do to stop this, but contacting your representatives may help.
- A new study shows that even a small amount of oil can make it harder for birds to fly.
- When glue-based insect traps like TrapStik are left outside, they can also catch birds.
- Feral cat advocates want to use feral cats for urban rat control, even though rats are not a preferred prey item and feral cats eat many wild birds each year.
- Prairie songbirds in areas with oil and natural gas development face an increased amount of nest parasitism by cowbirds.
- Forest-dwelling birds avoid crossing roads to avoid predation.
Science and nature blogging
- International Dark-Sky Association: Like moths to a flame: National Moth Week, and how you can help our nighttime wildlife
- Bird Ecology Study Group: © Black Bulbul Romancing Chinaberries in Taiwan
- The Urban Birder World: A Seabird Colony in a City. Preston’s tern colony, Lancashire, England
- Mia McPherson's On The Wing Photography: Thousands & Thousands of Wilson’s Phalaropes over the Great Salt Lake
- earthstar: A tale of three bindweeds
- Backyard and Beyond: Agelaius phoeniceus
- Earbirding: Eastern vs. Western Purple Martins
- Snapshots of Nature: Great Gull Island: Part Three, The Research
- Ornithologi.com: White-collared Swift Nest in Belize, Central America
- Ontario Birds and Herps: Dickcissel invasion!
- The Rattling Crow: Individual human recognition in crows
- Beetles In The Bush: Cicindela scutellaris flavoviridis (chartreuse tiger beetle)
- Gulls to the Horizon: 1CY Lesser black-backed Gull Green YCKN – plumage development 2017
Environment and biodiversity
- National Moth Week begins tomorrow, July 22, and runs through Sunday, July 30. To participate, either leave on a light to attract moths on your own or find a local event. Then submit the results to one of the participating websites like iNaturalist. To identify moths in the U.S., the most useful online resource is the Moth Photographers Group plate series.
- Speaking of iNaturalist, the citizen science website updated its app to identify photos using artificial intelligence, much like the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Merlin app.
- North America has the most diversity of freshwater mussels in the world, but most are endangered and require extensive conservation efforts to repopulate our waterways.
- Humans have produced 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic, and most plastic waste is in landfills or floating in the ocean. Only 9% has been recycled.
- Hunting or "managing" wolves outside of refuge can harm the ones living inside the protected areas.
- Stay away from the invasive Giant Hogweed, which is incredibly toxic despite its resemblance to more benign plants. Here is more on the plant and how to identify it.
- A subsidiary of TransCanada wants to build a natural gas pipeline through Washington County in western Maryland despite local opposition.
