This week in birds - #580

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

The female Red-winged Blackbird looks nothing like her flashy mate. One could even take her for a large sparrow until one sees her striding across the yard. That strut definitely gives her away.

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One might think that climate change denialism has run its course but not with 15% of Americans it seems.

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A warm Atlantic could be foretelling an active hurricane season.

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Thriving plant life on the Greenland ice sheet where it really shouldn't be is causing climate scientists to be concerned.

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The side of a frog may seem a strange place for a mushroom to grow, but Nature will find a way.

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Parthenogenesis is yet another solution that Nature has found but it is one that isn't available to us mammals.

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Paraquat, a toxic herbicide linked to Parkinson's Disease, has again been approved by the Environmental Protection Agency for use in this country. That seems like a serious contradiction of the agency's name.

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How was Earth sent into its longest winter? Scientists have a new theory.

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Can we set up needed solar power projects without harming Nature?

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Planting trees can be a good thing but they have to be the right kind of trees.

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The North Atlantic right whale is already critically endangered but after two have been found dead recently there may be reason to believe their situation is even more serious than previously thought.

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A defunct golf course in California has been turned into an ecological life raft.

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The Amazon rainforest could be near to reaching the tipping point of its destruction.

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This is Gaia, a black-footed cat living at the Hogle Zoo in Utah. Black-footed cats are a small, cute, and vulnerable species. They also hold the title of the deadliest cat on Earth.

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We owe a debt to the turtle mothers.

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Did the same asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs actually provide a boost to birds?

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A new report from the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals says that more than a fifth of species under international protection are threatened with extinction. 

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Could a Stone Age wall found at the bottom of the Baltic Sea be Europe's oldest megastructure?

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Alligator snapping turtles may start out as pets and then be released into the wild when the owners tire of them or can no longer care for them. Fluffy got lucky.

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Raw sewage in the Tijuana River along the U.S.-Mexico border is creating a public health crisis.

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Cave art recently discovered in Patagonia is over 8,000 years old.

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A 23-year-old platypus found in a creek in Australia may be able to teach scientists things that will help its species survive.

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Should one of Egypt's pyramids be "restored"?

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These two Chilean Flamingo chicks, along with their four siblings, owe their lives to the creative thinking of an Alaskan Airlines flight attendant. 

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Coral bleaching has now exceeded the parameters of the alert scale that had been in place for more than a decade.

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Collaring polar bears can teach scientists a lot about those animals and their environment and how climate change is affecting them.

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Here's a report about Flaco the escaped Eurasian Eagle-owl's year of freedom in the wilds of New York City.

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Who invented kissing? The Sumerians, maybe?

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I'll leave you with a picture of Jackie, the Bald Eagle, protecting her three precious eggs after a recent snowstorm.