Brown Pelican being released at Egmont Key NWR after being rescued and cleaned / U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Nick Ameen
Birds and birding news
- The Common Cuckoo is a brood parasite, which means that it lays its eggs in the nests of other birds. The host birds do not notice because the egg's pattern matches the host bird's eggs.
- The Boston Globe has a gallery of oiled birds. We have seen relatively few photos of oiled wildlife compared to what is actually happening because BP is blocking access to most reporters at spill sites. We are also not seeing the birds who get oiled farther offshore. The disaster could be devastating for other wildlife as well.
- Crows declined more severely in urban than rural areas after the introduction of West Nile Virus.
- Ecologists can use laser-based vegetation sensors to predict which forest tracts a bird species might use for nesting.
- Round Robin: Ways to help: eBird adds ability to report oiled birds
- Reconciliation Ecology: Where in the world is the Yellow-billed Magpie? Help us find out this weekend!
- Net Results: How to help baby birds
- The Marvelous in Nature: Where there’s smoke
- Denim and Tweed: Freeloading cuckoos force their hosts to diversify
- IBRRC: Video report: Saving one brown pelican at a time
- Birding Dude: Wilson’s Phalaropes at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge Queens NY
- 10,000 Birds: Wood-Warblers at the Forest Park Waterhole
- Last night BP succeeded in cutting the riser pipe and placing a cap over it. If the seal holds they will be able to pump oil out of the pipe so that less will spill into the water. The permanent solution will still be a relief well, which is due to be completed in August.
- The National Center for Atmospheric Research forecasts that the oil already present in the water will be drawn into the Gulf Stream and carried along the Atlantic seaboard over the summer. What effects this will have are unknown.
- The government knew early that the Deepwater Horizon explosion could be a major disaster. On the day after the explosion, the Coast Guard estimated that a well blowout could spew 8,000 barrels of oil per day; the following day, it revised its estimate to 64,000 to 110,000 barrels per day.
- XKCD imagines the gulf oil spill as directed by Michael Bay.
- Meanwhile, the Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation of the disaster.
- After the first Gulf War in 1991, an even worse oil spill coated the shores of Saudi Arabia.
- Allowing off-road vehicle use on public beaches limits the size of ghost crabs and causes them to dig narrower, long tunnels.
- A new estimate puts the number of species on the planet at 5.5 million rather than tens of millions.
- When immersed in water containing crystal meth, snails have better long-term memories.
- There are an increasing number of fires in the Amazon, and the carbon released during them is undermining the carbon savings from preserving other tracts of forest.
- An inventory of agricultural land found 25 new species of beetle hiding in hollow oaks.
- Here are some tips for having a refreshing and healthy hiking experience.
- The EPA revised the health standard for sulfur dioxide emissions for the first time in 40 years. The new standard is based on a one-hour measuring period rather than 24 hours to limit the health effects of short term exposure.
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