Greater Roadrunner photographed at Big Bend National Park.
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The Great Backyard Bird Count, easily my favorite of the citizen science programs in which I participate, is going global. When the time for the next project rolls around on President's Day weekend in February, anyone anywhere in the world will be able to participate. In the past, participation has been limited to the United States and Canada. Moreover, the project will now be linked with eBird so that reports made through GBBC will automatically also be reported to eBird.
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With the reelection of President Obama, the Environmental Protection Agency should be able to pursue its plan for fighting greenhouse gases, That does not mean, however, that opponents, particularly the big oil companies, will not be fighting them tooth and nail every step of the way.
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Super-storm Sandy has displaced many migratory birds, pushing them off their normal routes, often sending them much farther west than they would normally be found. "Exotic" birds are turning up all over the place, including in Philadelphia. The short-term effect of the storm on birds is readily observable, but the longer-term effects are yet to be determined. Will the storm speed up the expansion of ranges for some birds?
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Hurricane Sandy has also brought to the forefront in a very forceful way a recognition that global warming or global climate change is a reality. How much of a difference that might make in the political world where denial of climate change is an article of faith for a certain very vociferous segment remains to be seen.
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And speaking of global warming, one of its effects is to upset normal weather patterns. In India, this has meant a disruption of the monsoon cycle upon which much of Indian agriculture depends. This could have dire consequences for the ability of this populous nation to feed itself.
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Tool-using birds are rare, but we can add one more to the short list. Recently, a captive-bred Goffin's Cockatoo has been recorded using sticks as tools to reach food.
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Conservationists and locals in Tanzania are fighting a proposed plan to build a soda ash plant in prime breeding territory of the Lesser Flamingo. A survey of local residents revealed that they were more interested in protecting the flamingos than having the plant built.
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The great winter finch irruption of 2012 in North America has its counterpart in the UK where woodland birds are moving into backyard gardens looking for food. The reasons for the movement of those birds is the same as here - a failure of wild food crops that they normally depend upon.
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A new study from the University of Colorado Boulder shows that the drought of 2001-2002 in the Rocky Mountains greatly accelerated the devastation from pine beetles. This does not bode well for areas of pine trees that are continuing to suffer from drought.
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Two large new breeding colonies of Emperor Penguins have been located and documented by French scientists in the Antarctica.
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NASA satellites picked up images of apparent massive deforestation in Latin America, West and Central Africa and Southeast Asia during the just past summer months.
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The idea of intoxicated birds might sound funny, but it really isn't. Intoxication renders the birds unable to defend themselves from predators or to get out of the way of danger. Birds can become intoxicated on fermented berries. Young birds are particularly susceptible.
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Around the backyard:
Today was my first day of observation for Project FeederWatch. It was a very windy day, not the best condition for observing songbirds which tend to sit tight when the wind blows. I only recorded nine species of birds feeding in my yard and at my feeders today:
White-winged Dove
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Carolina Wren
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Eastern Bluebird
House Sparrow
Where were the cardinals and mockingbirds???
I'll be making observations again tomorrow and hoping to add a few more species to the list for my first report.
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