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| American Robin / Photo by Tom Koerner/USFWS |
Birds and birding news
- Birds that rely on camouflage consistently choose resting places that blend with their individual appearance.
- EBird has a map showing the Wood Thrush's migration and range. One issue in interpreting the map is that Wood Thrushes become harder for birders to find in late summer, so they seem to disappear even though they are probably present.
- A study across 40 college and university campuses found that about one bird per day dies in a collision with campus buildings in North America.
- This year's State of the Birds report focuses on birds helped by the Farm Bill.
- The Great Salt Lake is about half its natural size, which reduces habitat for migratory wetland birds.
- The program to restore Whooping Cranes is shutting down due to federal budget cuts.
- EBird is making it easier to change species on observations with field notes or uploaded media.
- PSE&G is building a 75-foot-tall cage around a methane flame at Kingsland Landfill in the Meadowlands to keep raptors from being injured as they fly over it.
- Isotopes reveal that Myrtle Warblers that winter on the Pacific coast breed in Alaska and Yukon, which means they have a much shorter migration route than if they wintered on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts like other Myrtle Warblers.
- A survey of New Britain found that some species were doing better than expected but other vulnerable ones were not seen at all.
- A new study links parrots' consumption of clay to their nutritional needs during the breeding season, particularly their need for extra sodium.
- Black-crowned Night-Herons were recorded breeding in Great Britain for the first time. The birds were probably drawn north by a combination of wetland restoration and climate change.
- Like bats, oilbirds use echolocation to navigate.
Science and nature blogging
- The Prairie Ecologist: Popular Sunflowers
- awkward botany: Summer of Weeds: Lambsquarters
- Bird Ecology Study Group: Great Egret – breeding plumage
- Leighton Photography & Imaging: The Sooty Grouse, Formerly the Blue Grouse
Environment and biodiversity
- A new study has proposed a reconstruction of the ancestral flower.
- Foxes and other predators of small mammals could help reduce Lyme disease by discouraging mouse activity and making it harder for tick nymphs to find their first blood meal.
- The budget passed by the House would allow oil drilling in Arctic NWR, which would threaten biodiversity and indigenous livelihoods.
- A new study argues that conservationists do not make as much use of evidence from peer-reviewed research as they could.
- A company wants to pump groundwater from the Mojave Desert to supply cities in southern California; environmentalists and others oppose the project for the damage it could do to natural springs.
- A federal appeals court has reinstated protections for the Great Lakes population of the Gray Wolf, but a bipartisan group of lawmakers is working to remove them again.
- Extending or modifying the border wall could put 100 endangered or threatened species at risk by blocking their movements or destroying their habitat. Meanwhile Homeland Security has waived environmental regulations for a portion of the wall near San Diego.
- A contractor for the border wall started clearing trees on the National Butterfly Center, a privately-owned nature reserve.
- Light pollution disrupts pollination by moths and other nocturnal pollinators.
- This year's dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, which kills fish and other marine life, is the largest ever recorded.
- The rare Quino Checkerspot is flying again at San Diego NWR thanks to habitat restoration and a reintroduction program.
