Posts
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| Northern Spotted Owl chicks / USFWS Photo |
- A study using geolocators found that some Arctic Terns that breed in the Netherlands migrate to their wintering grounds in Antarctica via Australia.
- It looks like scientists have developed an alternative bait that is attractive to whelks but does not use as many horseshoe crabs to produce. The use of horseshoe crabs as bait for whelk fishing has has caused the decline of Red Knots, which eat many of the eggs laid by horseshoe crabs.
- The use of rat poison on illegal marijuana plantations may be contributing to the Northern Spotted Owl's decline in at least some parts of its range. Two owls were recently found dead near a a plantation in northern California and tested positive for poison used there.
- A newly-discovered fossil shifts Archaeopteryx back into the evolutionary lineage of birds. However, there are questions about the fossil, and future discoveries will probably change the picture again since the early evolutionary tree for birds is very tentative. Here is a roundup of coverage of the discovery. See also Ed Yong's discussion of the find.
- Cornell has released a master set of North American bird sounds with 4,938 recordings of 735 species. There is also an essential set with 1,376 vocalizations of 727 species.
- A new study found that at least 58 bird species are at risk because of deforestation in Brazil's Atlantic Forest. Here is a gallery of some birds from that region.
- Researchers in South Korea showed that bumble bees might be able to steal a bird's nest for their own use.
- Here is an interview with someone who is working on owl conservation in Siberia.
- You can watch the Caerlaverock Osprey nest on a webcam.
- Extinction Countdown: Does Controversial Decision Pit California Condors against Wind Turbines?
- ReWire: The New York Times Vs. the Condor
- TreeHugger: Giant, fluorescent pink slugs found living atop a mountain in Australia
- Earbirding: Cornell’s Master Set
- Birding Is Fun: Merops apiaster - European Bee-eater - Abejaruco europeo
- The Drinking Bird: The Birder Jargon Project: Two Bird Theory
- Rebecca in the Woods: Beauty in Black and Orange
- Arctic Sea Ice: If this is real...
- A survey of amphibian species found declines that were much worse than expected, even among populations thought to be stable.
- It is possible that climate change could reduce the effects of chytrid fungus on frogs, if it warms above the fungus's optimal temperature. (However, climate change might still harm frogs in other ways.)
- The wolf pack at Isle Royale in Michigan may soon disappear as it is too inbred to reproduce successfully.
- A new butterfly species, the Vicroy's Ministreak (Ministrymon janevicroy), was discovered in Texas. It was previously unnoticed because it is rare and the only visual difference between it and other species is eye color, and eye color fades in the dead specimens lepidopterists traditionally worked with.
- A 2.5-mile stretch of the Los Angeles River is open to the public for the first time in decades.
- A pitcher plant in Borneo is colonized by ants, which kill and eat larvae that might otherwise be harm the plant.
- The endangered Island Fox, which lives in California's Channel Islands, is back from the brink and is now thriving.
- A team of researchers has mapped sea-level changes along New Jersey's coast over the past 10,000 years. At several points, the sea-level has risen as much as 4mm per year, and those times have occurred at the same time that major glaciers were melting.
