This week in birds - #546
A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment:
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A rainy winter has helped to create a glorious spring in California where a "super bloom" of wildflowers is in progress. Here's an explanation of how it came to be.
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The Houston Arboretum had become badly overgrown, but never fear; the goats are on the job!
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Sex for tigers in a zoo can be an iffy and dangerous thing so sometimes their caretakers have to intercede.
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Many waterways in America are endangered but the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon may be the most endangered of all.
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A record amount of seaweed appears to be headed across the Atlantic toward Florida.
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A virtual "insect apocalypse" seems to be underway. Can it be reversed?
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When buildings are taken down in the city, what becomes of all that material? "Urban mining" may offer a solution.
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Eastern Hellbender males seem to be turning cannibalistic which is a threat to the continuing survival of the species.
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Elephant seals can thrive on as little as two hours of sleep per 24-hour period.
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The Atacama Desert in Chile may be the perfect place on Earth for an astronomical observatory and that is why a giant new telescope is going up there.
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Birds are vanishing from our skies and that is a crisis for all of us.
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In North Carolina, a 1,000-year-old Native American canoe has been retrieved from a lake.
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Do you still have lightning bugs where you live?
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Are you familiar with BirdCast? It's a way of looking down from above - in other words, a bird's-eye view.
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Nature has some important secret weapons to fight against the effects of climate change.
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Clean energy has been quite successful in Texas but it seems that the state's Republicans are working hard to change that.
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The biggest cause of the water crisis in the West walks on four legs and munches grass.
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Parrots making video calls? Yes, that is a thing!
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North America's bat species face many perils including disease, climate change, and habitat loss.
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A unique intercontinental collaboration has helped to ensure the survival of the Lord Howe Island stick insect - at least for now.
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The author of Where the Crawdads Sing is a wildlife conservationist who is willing to make enemies in her work to protect wildlife and their habitats.
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Meet the cockeye squid, an animal that can look in two directions at once.
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Dam removals in California are benefiting many species there.
Good Saturday morning, Dorothy. Renewed thanks for the weekly roundup of environmental news. Anyone with eyes and ears knows that there is an insect apocalypse and that our birds are disappearing. Knowing that it's happening and summoning the resolve to reverse the trend are two different things entirely, however. I have not one shred of confidence in our leaders (there's an oxymoron) to lead, or the capacity of people to take the issues seriously. The scientists have been warning of the impending catastrophe for decades now. Yet each year the Doomsday Clock ticks a little closer to midnight.
ReplyDeleteI was reading about the canoe, that is so cool! I love when stuff like this happens. The past is always finding ways to make itself known.
ReplyDeleteA pair of spotted towhees used to hang out on our property each winter, but I haven't seen them for a long time. I miss them.
ReplyDeleteThe poor Colorado River has too many hogs at the trough wanting all its water, and I fear that it will never recover. Speaking of the West's water crisis, the cynic in me was not all that surprised to learn that golf courses in the Phoenix metro area have been "overspending" their water allotment by hundreds of thousands of gallons each year (at least) with absolutely no consequences. Golf brings in so much money to the area, what does it matter if we don't have any water left to drink or bathe in? At least the grass (that doesn't belong here) is nice and green for the golfers.
I was most fascinated this week with the story about the parrots making video calls. I have suspected for some time that dogs and cats are evolving quickly these days, and now I wonder about birds.
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