This week in birds - #608

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

I'm not adept at spider identification but I believe this is some kind of Argiope - possibly Argiope aurantia(?). Correct me if you know better. Whatever it is, I think it's beautiful. I believe I'll call her Charlotte.

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The planet-heating pollution of Earth's atmosphere hit its highest level in human history last year. And climate change is making extreme weather events even more deadly. 

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Scientists have documented Earth's climate over the last 485 million years, revealing a history of wild shifts and hotter temperatures than had previously been believed.

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An aim of the COP 16 conference is to have the nations create a unified pledge on climate and biodiversity.

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COP 16 created the "Tropical Forest Forever Facility," an innovative new fund to help tropical nations conserve their native forests. 

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Have you heard of the Doomsday Plant Vault? It is a storage facility in Norway meant to be humanity's last resort and it has recently received more than 30,000 samples to preserve. 

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Tadpoles the size of dogs? Based on a 161 million-year-old fossil, that seems to have once been the case.

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"Beeple" are master gardeners who collect bees for study and they are helping to transform our knowledge of these essential insects.

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There are less than 400 northern right whales left in Earth's seas and only about 70 of them are mothers. Can they save their species? 

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The cicadas of the late Jurassic Period were quite different from the ones we know today and, of course, there is an evolutionary reason for that.  

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It turns out there is quite a lot we can learn from bat guano.

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The American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week is actually something of a favorite of mine. It's the Black Vulture. Whenever I am in my yard, I can observe them patrolling the skies over the neighborhood, looking for their next meal. They are often in the company of their cousin, the Turkey Vulture. These two, along with the Crested Caracara, help to keep our streets and byways clean of carrion. 

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The mountainous Ulu Masen Ecosystem of Indonesia is home to a rich variety of animal life and it needs protection to ensure its survival.

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Gardeners in Kentucky have taken the idea of Little Free Libraries a step further by providing free fruit and vegetables that anyone can take. You could call them "Little Free Grocery Stores."

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How do animals understand death and dying?

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Moths are fascinating critters and an essential part of a healthy ecosystem.

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Sadly, the United States is lagging behind in the effort to negotiate a plan to save and protect Nature.

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Crows are very brainy birds and that large brain remembers things for a long time which means that they can hold grudges for wrongs done to them in the past. (Shades of Hitchcock's The Birds, one of my favorite movies!)

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Racing homing pigeons was once a very popular pastime and it lives on even today.


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