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| Horned Lark / Photo by Tom Koerner/USFWS |
Birds and birding news
- This week marked the 100th anniversary of the extinction of Carolina Parakeets. Even as the species was known to be declining, ornithologists of the time continued collecting specimens. One way to honor the occasion is to think about the places where the birds lived and the people who experienced them.
- Safe Wings Ottawa is running an exhibit of birds killed by buildings in the city in the past year to raise awareness of this conservation problem.
- There is an ongoing debate about whether flamingos are native to Florida, while flamingos from further south may be (re)colonizing the state.
- Here is a guide to finding and identifying Rusty Blackbirds, which are starting their northward migration.
- Extinct moas helped shape the plant and fungal communities in the forests and shrublands where they lived.
- Longer incubation times for some tropical bird species may protect the chicks from some blood parasites.
- Winter is a great time to look for North America's wild swans.
- The number of bird species is lower at higher elevations, but the rate of species formation is higher.
- A male Northern Cardinal with yellow plumage had been appearing in a backyard in Alabama.
- Pileated Woodpeckers can be conspicuous in winter, as long as they have dead trees for foraging.
- Male and female King Penguins can be distinguished by vocalizations and bill length.
- Coffee farming can be good for bird diversity, regardless of the bean variety, as long as the coffee grows in shaded conditions.
Science and nature blogging
- Mia McPherson's On The Wing Photography: Greater Sage-Grouse on a Lek – Our Public Lands – Our Legacy
- The Meadowlands Nature Blog: Don Torino’s Life in the Meadowlands: Why We Need Plants for Birds
- Birding New Jersey: Parakeet Art
- Bourbon, Bastards, and Birds.: In The Absense of Hawks
- The Digiscoper: What do I love?
- Backyard and Beyond: Kestrel Week I (see his other posts this week for more kestrels)
Environment and biodiversity
- California could lose most of its salt marshes in the next century due to the twin pressures from sea level rise and real estate development.
- Scott Pruitt has been one of the more effective cabinet members in terms of destroying the work of the agency he runs.
- Many golf balls end up in waterways and the ocean, where they contribute to the microplastic problem.
- New Jersey will join the Climate Alliance, a group of states and territories that will continue to implement the Paris Agreement even if the U.S. completes its withdrawal.
- This week featured record high temperatures along much of the U.S. east coast, including all-time highs for the month of February in Trenton and Newark. Some unusual characteristics of this week's heat wave may indicate a connection to climate change.
- A potentially invasive tick species from Asia was found on sheep in New Jersey; how it got there is still unclear.
