Posts
 |
| Wild Turkey / Photo by Courtney Celley/USFWS |
- A new study using high-speed photography unraveled how hummingbirds drink nectar: not by capillary action (as traditionally thought) but by rapidly scooping nectar like a piston.
- Endangered Snail Kites are evolving larger beaks to eat invasive snails in the Everglades (though they still prefer the native apple snails when available).
- Meanwhile, invasive frogs are boosting the numbers of invasive birds in Hawaii.
- The pesticides chlorpyrifos and imidacloprid may be lethal or disorienting for songbirds exposed to them.
- Congress may vote to weaken the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the primary law that protects birds; sign a petition here to let your representatives know if you oppose this.
- Manitoba has long been a stronghold for Golden-winged Warblers, but the population there has started to show signs of hybridization.
- Many Whooping Cranes start forming pair bonds before they are ready to mate and then maintain those bonds for life.
- It looks increasingly like this winter will be an irruption year for Snowy Owls. This week one was banded by Project SNOWstorm at Island Beach State Park in New Jersey. Project SNOWstorm is seeking donations to help cover expenses for transmitters this winter.
- The Guam Kingfisher is extinct in the wild, but its population has been maintained in captivity in U.S. zoos. Reintroduction to the wild will depend on eliminating invasive snakes or finding a suitable alternative location.
- A study found that shy elk accept the grooming they receive from magpies, which pick ticks off the elk.
- Climate change is shifting the wintering grounds of some birds from Africa into the Middle East, which also has an effect on farmers in the region.
- In California, many birds are breeding earlier in response to climate change.
- Little brown birds that are endangered tend to get less attention from conservation organizations and the general public than more colorful endangered birds.
- With the return of large migratory goose flocks, contractors are again using pyrotechnics to scare them off some places where they congregate, like parks in the Sayreville area. (Oddly, that story was illustrated with a photo of a Pink-footed Goose, which is pretty rare in the Sayreville area.)
- Here is a list of New Jersey's Christmas Bird Counts, with dates and contact information.
- Observations: East of Siberia: A Spoon-Billed Curiosity
- Inkfish: Why Some Bird Babies Ride Piggyback
- Stokes Birding Blog: Cackling Goose, Would You Know One?
- Snapshots of Nature: The Good, The Bad, and the Owl
- Birding New Jersey: Fun With Falcons
- mocosocoBirds: November Birds; Christmas Bird Counts – Nov. 26, 2017
- awkward botany: The Agents That Shape the Floral Traits of Sunflowers
- Kent Dragonflies: Processing Dragonfly Nymph Photos
- The Trump administration plans to cut Bears Ears National Monument by 85% and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by 50% in an announcement next week. The Wilderness Society claims to have draft maps of the new boundaries. Modifications are also expected for several other national monuments.
- A writer inspired by Edward Abbey encountered racism from the outdoors community.
- Utah's Great Salt Lake is shrinking primarily because of human consumption of the water, a problem shared with other inland saline basins like the Aral Sea and Salton Sea.
- It is not clear that wolf culling strategies actually prevent them from killing livestock.
- Recently-burned forests are among the most biodiverse landscapes but have little or no protection from logging.
- Droughts are reducing the canopy in Hawaii's forests.
- A German court cleared the way for an old forest on the German-Belgian border to be cut down for a coal strip mine.
- A new butterfly species, the South-Russian Blue (Polyommatus australorossicus), was discovered with an unusual (for a butterfly) set of 46 chromosomes.
- A proposal may be in the works to build a new marina at Liberty State Park that would obstruct the waterfront along the southern side of the park. A protest is scheduled for Saturday (pdf).
- In better news, the Pinelands Commission has finally passed an off-road vehicle plan for Wharton State Forest. The plan had been held up by the Christie administration due to opposition from ORV owners.
