This week in birds - #602

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

My yard is still alive with migrating Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. Sitting on my patio today, I counted nine at one time who were jostling over access to my feeders that hang next to the patio. But so far, I am seeing only adult females and immatures - nary an adult male like the one in this picture that I snapped last fall. I assume the males will be passing through soon.  

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Floods and wildfires in Europe are a direct result of climate change according to authorities there. And it is not only in Europe that rising global heat is causing catastrophic damage.

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Moreover, a new reconstruction of prehistoric Earth shows that it was indeed a very hot place.

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Why do birds migrate?

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The Zimbabwe government has ordered the culling of 200 elephants because an extended drought has caused food shortages for the animals.

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Rising sea temperatures have contributed to a decline in the population of Florida's queen conchs. Now scientists are stepping in to try to aid the endangered shellfish.

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Some states are petitioning the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate "forever chemicals" air emissions.

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The nearly extinct Sihek, aka Guam Kingfisher, is getting an assist from biologists who are intent on saving the species.

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Are Indigenous peoples protecting Earth's biodiversity? That has been a widely spread factoid but it is now being debunked by scientists.

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Vultures are essential to the proper functioning of Nature and when they die out it is bad news for Nature and that includes humans.

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The Fish and Wildlife Service has petitioned the court to delete the gray wolf from protections of the Endangered Species Act, saying that the species has now sufficiently recovered to no longer require protection.

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The shy and secretive Bachman's Sparrow is decreasing in numbers. It is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week.

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Scientists are using in vitro fertilization to produce young corals that can survive record heat events and reverse the widespread bleaching of reefs. They are planting them in reefs around the Gulf of Mexico.

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White-nose syndrome has devastated North American bat populations but scientists are finding ways to combat it.

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Eelgrass is an important part of a coastal environment so its decline along the coast of Maine is cause for concern.

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Thousands of people gather in Portland, Oregon to watch the nighttime routine of migrating Vaux's Swifts. (Maybe there is hope for humanity, after all.)

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Did you know there is a contest to see which water lily can hold the most weight? The answer is "quite a lot," as it turns out.

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A high school in Los Angeles was built over a bone bed from the Miocene era and a shell bed from the Pleistocene era and now researchers are revealing some of the secrets buried there.

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A federal study has found that climate change will boost the use of hydropower in the Pacific Northwest.

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The Canada Goose is familiar across the continent, at least in migration. But familiarity does not necessarily mean understanding.

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The rock art of the San people of South Africa may reveal a knowledge of paleontology that predates the Western study of that field.

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Native to eastern Asia, the giant joro spider has found its way to North America. First seen in Georgia in 2014, they've recently been sighted for the first time in Pennsylvania.

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The Dodo lived quite successfully on Earth for millions of years before being wiped out by humans. The last one died in 1662.