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| Trumpeter Swans / Photo by Tom Koerner/USFWS |
Birds and birding news
- The FBI completed evidence collection at Malheur NWR, and USFWS employees have access to the refuge for restoration and reopening. Refuge employees conducted the February raptor survey with help from the FBI.
- Warmer ocean temperatures could make it harder for the Little Penguin to find food.
- Red-backed Fairywrens sing duets to maintain their pair bond in the face of intruders.
- Surveys in China discovered a new wintering location for Spoon-billed Sandpipers, with at least 45 individuals spread over four locations.
- Even elusive pittas are not safe from traffickers; 81 pittas from several species were found in markets in Java last year.
- Brood parasites have a variety of methods for deceiving their hosts.
- In the future, the USFWS will place captive-bred Whooping Crane chicks with wild foster parents rather than having them guided by humans.
- NJ state officials are lobbying federal agencies to ease regulations that protect migrating Red Knots to allow more oyster aquaculture along Delaware Bay.
- Birds that migrate farther have more new neurons in parts of the brain for navigation and spatial orientation.
- Audubon has a new series of rules for birding (mainly aimed at new birders).
- New Jersey's Osprey breeding population is up to 534 active nests in 2015.
- Here is a guide for rescuing birds that accidentally fly indoors.
- CT scans of a Dodo's skull showed that its brain size was comparable to modern pigeons and that it had an enlarged olfactory bulb.
- Thirteen Bald Eagles were found dead in Maryland, and secondary poisoning is the suspected cause.
- About 20 geese were returned to the wild in Washington, DC, after being cleaned of mineral oil that had spilled into the Potomac from a power plant in Virginia.
Science and nature blogging
- Boreal Bird Blog: Wondrous World of Warblers
- wadertales: Why do Turnstones eat chips?
- Extinction Countdown: Brazil's Bats to Face Climate-Change Squeeze
- Nemesis Bird: Northeast Goose Finding Tactics by Alex Lamoreaux
- Inkfish: Barnacles Plus Plastic Trash Make Rafts for Ocean Animals
- Birding Dude: Cackling Goose Conundrum
- The Rattling Crow: Play in gulls
Environment and biodiversity
- Polish scientists are protesting a plan to increase logging in the Białowieża Forest, an old-growth forest that is home to the largest wild population of European Bison.
- The natural gas leak in California was the largest greenhouse gas accident on record, spilling the equivalent of the annual emissions of 600,000 cars. While that incident was particularly bad, natural gas drilling operations leak a lot of methane even under normal conditions.
- Sea levels are rising faster now than they have in the past 2800 years according to a study that included sediment cores from South Jersey salt marshes.
- A new paper includes a major revision of spider taxonomy.
- The Deepwater Horizon oil spill changed microbial communities that thrived near shipwrecks in the Gulf of Mexico.
- A previously bold population of raccoons changed the way they foraged in response to recordings of dogs barking. The study supports the notion that introduction of predators can have cascading effects through fear as well as predation.
- Droughts worsened by climate change are not just a western problem.
- A ship that sank off the coast of California 60 years ago is still leaking oil.
- Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey, wants to cut down over 18,000 trees to build a solar farm.
- Trendy animal photos can harm wildlife by causing stress to the individuals photographed or by encouraging the exotic pet trade.
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