Photo of Great Green Macaw courtesy of ABC.
The Great Green Macaw is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week this week. It is the second-largest macaw in the world after the Hyacinth Macaw. Recently, the bird created quite a stir in Ecuador when 36 of them were sighted flying over the lush forest of the Canandé Reserve. It was the first time that such a large flock had been spotted there. The flock included more Great Green Macaws than were previously thought to exist in the country. This is an endangered species with approximately 3500 thought to exist in the wild. They are found from Honduras to Ecuador in small, fragmented populations.
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The big news in the world of Nature and science this week was the announcement of the discovery of a new species of mammal in the Andean Cloud Forest. The Olinguito is described as looking like a cross between a house cat and a teddy bear. It is the first new species of mammal to be discovered on the American continents in 35 years.
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Perhaps as a harbinger of things to come in Texas, the little town of Barnhart has recently run out of water because of a combination of the effects of the drought and the overuse of water for fracking. In a somewhat related story in The New York Times this week, many cities in the West are actually paying homeowners to rip out their water-guzzling lawns and employ more drought-friendly landscaping.
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Some people consider the larvae of butterflies, the caterpillars that munch certain plants, as pests to be exterminated. Those people, in my opinion, are very short-sighted and misguided. Rebecca in the Woods agrees with me.
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I've noted here before that Bald Eagles have made a remarkable recovery from the brink of extinction in this country. They are doing so well, in fact, that some states are considering removing them from their threatened species lists.
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A study of Ostrich necks has provided clues to the flexibility of some dinosaurs. The conclusion is that long-necked sauropods may not have been very flexible at all.
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For the first time since the 1960s, Hen Harriers, a relative of our own Northern Harriers, have failed to nest successfully in England and are considered to be on the brink of extinction there.
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And, in more bad news, twenty Andean Condors have been found dead in the mountain range between Chile and Argentina. Health authorities are attempting to ascertain the cause of death.
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The kingbird comes by its name honestly. It firmly believes it is the king of all it surveys. It does not hesitate to attack larger birds that it perceives as a threat. The ABA blog this week published a story with pictures of such an encounter between an Eastern Kingbird and a Prairie Falcon.
Eastern Kingbird photographed at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge.
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The U.S. Navy has stepped up its efforts to better protect the little Burrowing Owls that make their home on the Navy's Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station in Orange County, California. At the same time, they have to be aware of the owls' potential for preying on a colony of Least Terns that lives there and they must balance protection of those birds as well.
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The population of Ospreys in Scotland is increasing and now a few of the young Scottish birds are being sent to Spain to try to aid the declining population of the birds there.
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The world's largest owl is the Blakiston's Fish Owl which lives in the great primary forests of Russia's Far East. The owl is an indicator species for the health of its environment and the bird is now considered endangered and its numbers are decreasing.
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The Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C., has hired a herd of eco-friendly goats to clean up its poison ivy and invasive species like kudzu. It's nice to hear that someone in Washington has a care and concern for the health of the environment!
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