This week in birds - #568

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment: 

A Great Blue Heron stands atop a nesting box intended for the use of Wood Ducks at Brazos Bend State Park in Southeast Texas.

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In the waters of that park, a Common Gallinule takes a swim.

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And here comes El Niño once again. It is expected to bring a warmer-than-usual winter to parts of the country, and around where I live here in Southeast Texas it is likely to be a wet winter. 

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In the Amazon rainforest, they could definitely use some of El Niño's rainfall. The area is experiencing a severe and prolonged drought.

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High-rise buildings are notorious bird killers and some areas are looking for ways to fix that problem.

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Fallen leaves are a treasure of Nature; let them lie!

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Hurricanes in the Atlantic are getting stronger and faster. Meanwhile, hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico have been nonexistent for quite a while, at least as far as our coast is concerned.

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Warmer oceans are being blamed for the deaths of billions of snow crabs in Alaska.

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A red-eared turtle goes for a swim in waters along the Gulf Coast. It is easy to see how he got his name.

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White-tailed deer are common animals in many parts of the country but what do we really know of their lives? Not as much as we might imagine.

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A bird of the tundra is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week. It is the pretty little Red-necked Phalarope.

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Want to see something incredibly cute? Check out the baby animal cam.

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The debate continues: Is the Ivory-billed Woodpecker extinct or isn't it? Based on some photographic and video evidence, the U.S. government is not ready to say that it is. 

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Amphibians of the Andes like this little Im Thurn's rain frog are facing unique perils as the climate warms up.

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Project Feederwatch begins on November 1 and there are even more options for reporting wildlife sightings this year.

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Who knew? Mammals glow!  

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Frank the Tank is a tortoise that was abandoned by his owner when he apparently got too big for them to handle. So now, Frank needs a new home. One with plenty of room.



Comments

  1. David M. Gascoigne,October 21, 2023 at 5:23 AM

    Good morning, Dorothy. Thank you for the weekly roundup, the Saturday Summary of Human Folly. Now about those fallen leaves, we have been leaving (bad pun) them for years. They really do protect the soil and provide winter habitat for so many creatures. Just yesterday I saw a wooly bear caterpillar (the larva of the Isabella Tiger Moth) trundling over to a leaf pile, where it will hunker down and overwinter. And we haven’t even discussed the nutrients returned to the soil. I think it should become a statutory requirement! Best wishes - David

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lark October 21, 2023 at 11:03 AM

    We get Great Blue Herons here in Utah, too. They're such beautiful birds. And someday I'd love to see a Red-necked Phalarope. Have a good weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  3. HarveeOctober 21, 2023 at 12:41 PM

    I love the herons and wading birds of Lake Erie near here. In spring, it's marvelous.

    ReplyDelete
  4. thecuecardOctober 23, 2023 at 9:13 AM

    I think the leaf article is a bit helpful. We now are no longer raking up our leaves but I'd like to cut them up a bit so they don't get too dense. Turtles are fun to see.

    ReplyDelete

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