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| Upland Sandpiper / Photo by Jennifer Strickland/USFWS |
Birds and birding news
- New Jersey Audubon's World Series of Birding was last Saturday. See the final standings here. My team, the Middlesex Merlins, finished with 119 species, a little below our usual numbers.
- A reporter from The Guardian followed the Meadowlands Marsh Hawks around Bergen County during the World Series of Birding.
- Hawaiian Crows have built a nest in the wild for the first time in decades.
- Three captive-bred Florida Grasshopper Sparrows were released into the wild this week. The subspecies is one of the most endangered land birds in the U.S.
- Many American cities are home to colonies of feral parrots, descended from birds that escaped captivity.
- Chicago is the deadliest American city for birds because of a combination glass-covered buildings and location on a major migratory flyway.
- Organic farming benefits birds that nest in agricultural areas, especially insectivores like swallows.
- Bridge work in Oradell was delayed due to nesting Black-crowned Night-Herons, which are currently featured in a lawsuit by the construction company.
- This week was the start of Climate Watch, a citizen science project to monitor how birds react to climate change.
Science and nature blogging
- Avian Hybrids: East or West? Different populations of Red-necked Phalaropes use distinct migration routes
- Ornithologi: Published in the Journal of Raptor Research: Dietary Plasticity in a Specialist Predator, the Gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolus): New Insights into Diet During Brood Rearing
- robertscribbler: Perturbed Earth: Why is Heat-Trapping Methane on the Rise?
- 10,000 Birds: The Golden-cheeked Warbler and Conservation Banks
- Philly Bird Nerd: World Series of Birding - 2019
- ABA Blog: Happening NOW: Wilson’s Plovers Winging North
- awkward botany: Drought Tolerant Plants: Ice Plants
- feathers and thoughts: Jurassic Bird – Alcmonavis poeschli Rauhut, Tischlinger & Foth
- Laura's Birding Blog: Distressing News for Birders with High Frequency Hearing Loss
Conservation and biodiversity
- Some species may be in greater danger of extinction than we realize because of their long generation times.
- Grizzly bears in the Yellowstone region have to travel farther from home to find adequate food, and their mortality rate is increasing.
Climate change and environmental politics
- After unsuccessful attempts to build walls through the National Butterfly Center and Bentsen-Rio Grande State Park, the Trump administration now has its eyes on Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge for wall construction projects.
- In 2017, Trump appointees pushed the USFWS to delist or not list 30 vulnerable species and wanted the same to be done in 2018.
- Scientists found 414 million plastic pieces on a remote island chain in the Pacific. The islands are lightly populated, so most of the plastic probably washed in from the ocean.
- Timber certification is no guarantee that it was logged sustainably, or even legally.
- The EPA's inspector general says the agency should take back $124,000 of Scott Pruitt's excessive expenses.
- Phil Murphy appointed a new member to the Pinelands Commission to replace one of Chris Christie's nominees, who had been appointed to push through pipeline projects.
