Piping Plover / Photo by Mark Wilson (USFWS)
Birds and birding news
- The Houston Zoo and US Fish and Wildlife Service are trying to rebuild the Attwater’s Prairie-Chicken population along the Gulf Coast through habitat restoration and captive breeding.
- A study of Barn Owls shows that healthy owl ears can distinguish the source of a sound from its echoes.
- A travel reporter describes the experience of birding in Peru's cloud forest. (The NY Times decided to publish that article in its Sports section.)
- Bird tracker Arlo Raim was killed by a freight train while studying the effects of increased rail traffic on Northern Cardinals in a forest bordering the train tracks.
- Europe's rarest seabird, the Zino's Petrel took a blow to its population when a forest fire on Madeira killed three breeding adults and 65% of this year's chicks. The species consists of only 80 breeding pairs, and the island is its only breeding site in the world.
- Homosexual behavior among birds generally does not reduce reproductive success; it tends to be more common in whichever gender spends less time caring for young.
- A new book documents the world's 50 rarest birds. The link has a gallery showing 15 of them.
- A rare cuckoo species, the Sumatran Ground Cuckoo, was recorded on a camera trap after the species had gone undetected since 1916.
- Recordings of the dawn chorus are being used to calm children receiving treatments in Liverpool's Alder Hey hospital.
- Great Swamp NWR is a prime spot for watching fall bird migration in central New Jersey.
- The Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals wants to stop the hunting of young Northern Gannets in the Hebrides.
- Biological Ramblings: New Wood-Warbler Taxonomy
- The Drinking Bird: Cape Hatteras is for the birds, finally
- 10,000 Birds: Broome….birds, beaches & beyond.
- Net Results: Fall banding 2010: Week #1 in review
- Tails of Birding: Harlequin
- View from the Cape: The one that got away
- From C to Carnivore: The Amazing World of Hummingbirds (Part II)
- Drew Wheelan reports on the migratory shorebirds arriving on contaminated beaches and marshes in the Gulf. A particular problem is that layers of oil are still present underneath the surface of the beaches.
- A panel investigating the disaster is still having trouble figuring out who was in charge of the drilling rig and responsible for the explosion and spill.
- BP has decided not to join the oil rush in the Arctic because of the political problems that would create in the wake of the Gulf oil spill.
- The government is still working on a restoration plan for the areas affected by the oil spill.
- A writer explores problems with the contemporary green movement, particularly the willingness of many environmentalists to sacrifice wilderness areas or wildlife in the name of clean energy or "sustainability."
- A new study finds that coal ash dumps from power plants contaminate ground water and streams with unhealthy levels of toxic chemicals and heavy metals.
- Some visitors to national parks are using cellphones or GPS devices are straining the park system's emergency response resources by calling emergency numbers in non-emergency situations.
- A tiny, pea-sized frog (Microhyla nepenthicola) was discovered in a pitcher plant on Borneo. The species lives its life cycle in the pitcher plants: the frogs lay their eggs on the plant, and tadpoles swim in the plant's liquid.
- A proposed highway through Serengeti National Park could disrupt the annual migration of wildebeest and zebra and isolate it from Kenya's Masaai Mara National Reserve. Conservationists are arguing for a southern route around the park.
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