Loose Feathers #250 ~ FIRECROW

Common Tern with Wings Spread / Photo by Rosie Walunas (USFWS)

Birds and birding news

Since they are a top predator, the health of Swainson's Hawks can be used to measure the overall health of the grasslands they rely on for breeding and wintering.
The Northern Aplomado Falcon's reintroduction into New Mexico has been upheld in federal court. The reintroduction plan had been challenged by Forest Guardians, which wanted the Fish and Wildlife Service to treat the reintroduced birds as a naturally occurring population rather than an experimental one.
Here is an article on how to report banded birds and what sorts of markings to look for.
The L.A. Times has an article on hummingbird rehabilitation. Many of the birds rehabbed were caught by outdoor cats.
Climate change may make it more difficult for future bird populations to survive intense heat waves.
Female Budgerigars are attracted to males that produce songs that mimic their own.
Fines were issued for boys harassing breeding Common Loons in the Adirondacks.
There is an interview with David Sibley at the website of Scott and Nix, his publisher.

Birds in the blogosphere

Oil Spill

BP started pumping cement into the top of the broken Deepwater Horizon well to complete its static kill.
So far 249 lawsuits have been filed against Transocean, the owner of the drilling rig.
Much oil remains around the Gulf of Mexico, some of it buried in beaches and wetlands. Whether microbes break it down depends on whether microbes have sufficient oxygen to operate.
The BBC reports on how difficult it is to determine just how bad the Gulf of Mexico spill is. Very little is known about the effect of a spill in such deep water.
There is some concern about birds, including some endangered and threatened species, migrating from northern regions through the Gulf of Mexico.
Workers involved in the cleanup say that the oil spill in Dalian, China, was far worse than local officials acknowledged. The spill was the worst in Chinese history, with a greater volume of oil than the Exxon Valdez spill but less than BP's spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Environment and biodiversity

Scientists expect the Little Brown Myotis bat to be extirpated from the northeastern United States in 16 years due to white nosed syndrome. This could have huge consequences since the species is the most common bat in North America.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service will consider whether to list Mexican Gray Wolves separately from other Gray Wolves under the Endangered Species Act. A separate listing would require the agency to create a recovery plan for the subspecies, which it does not currently have.
Some of you may have read erroneous reports that Triceratops would go the way of Brontosaurus. The real story is that Triceratops was the young form of Torosaurus. Triceratops and Torosaurus have been merged into a single species, which will be called Triceratops.
Environmentalists recently traveled by kayak down the Los Angeles River to document its ecology.

Carnivals

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