Loose Feathers #545

Red Knot with Horseshoe Crabs / Photo by Gregory Breese/USFWS

Birds and birding news

• Tomorrow is International Migratory Bird Day. EBird is asking birders to report as many birds as possible as part of a Global Big Day. In New Jersey, teams will compete in the World Series of Birding. Once again I will be a participant with the Middlesex Merlins at the county level.
• Climate change appears to be making Red Knots smaller. The change, measured in birds that pass through Poland, appears to be linked to the earlier emergence of insects as snows melt on the tundra. The smaller size hurts the birds because they are unable to dig as deeply for mollusks on their wintering grounds. 
• Freshkills, a former landfill that is now a park on Staten Island, is home to a thriving population of Grasshopper Sparrows.
• Some migratory birds that winter in Africa sing on the wintering grounds, apparently to practice their songs.
• Climate change makes Purple Gallinules more likely to wander.
• The deaths of over 300 migratory geese in Idaho may have been caused by rodent poison.

Science and nature blogging

• 10,000 Birds: What’s in a Name: Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet
• Cicada Mania: Cicada Straggler Alert 2016 

Environment and biodiversity

• The massive wildfire in Fort McMurray is symptomatic of climate-induced changes that are wreaking havoc in the vast boreal forest. Further destruction of the boreal forest in turn threatens to increase global warming through feedback effects.
• Unfortunately the discussion of climate change in relation to the Fort McMurray fire got sidetracked.
• The fire, which is expected to burn for months, shut down tar sands mining operations last week.
• Despite the biodiversity crisis, the study of natural history and taxonomy has become increasingly marginalized.
• An inventory of the world's plants found that there are about 391,000 plant species. Of those, 30,000 have a documented use and 20% are endangered. 
• Despite hiking's benefits, taboos persist against women hiking alone.
• Staten Island is attempting to reduce its deer population by trapping and sterilizing the males prior to the fall rutting season.