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'The Dodo ( Raphus cucullatus ) — that towering icon of modern anthropogenic extinctions — was a pigeon. Not, as Linneaus thought, an ostrich, nor even, as later scientists concluded, a distant cousin of pigeons deserving of family rank, it was an honest-to-goodness pigeon, deeply embedded within the family Columbidae. In fact, the Dodo belonged to a clade (sometimes called Raphini) of 15 remarkable, bizarre, intriguing island-adapted pigeons, some of which are still alive today, but
'Expert cites scientifically-proven therapeutic, physical and emotional health benefits of loving and caring for a pet. Pet ownership runs far deeper than simply caring for a possession. Yes, the sheer responsibility of caring for a pet has notable benefits in and of itself. But, pets also become bona fide family members with which we establish genuine relationships—incomparable emotional bonds that can have extraordinarily positive physical and psychological impacts on humans.
'Issue Date: 2014-10-01. Author: Mark Roberge. Teaser: This generation not only embraces the new playbook, they helped write it by leading the digital charge and tuning out old-school sales tactics from day one. Here are the top reasons I think millennials make naturally great salespeople. This generation not only embraces the new playbook, they helped write it by leading the digital charge and tuning out old-school sales tactics from day one.
'Nobody knows and I’m not going to pretend to tell you. However, in this post, I’d like to lay out the basic numbers as we pretend to know them about overall bird mortality, human related causes of mortality, and somewhere in there I’ll note that the number of birds that are killed by windmills is so small that it says “zero” on my pie chart.
'The W hite-winged guan ( Penelope albipennis ) was thought to be extinct for 100 years. The Guan had never been seen in the wild after Polish Naturalist Wladyslaw Taczanowski collected one individual in 1876. The story of the White-winged Guan , in some ways resembles the re-discovery of some species thought to be extinct. Nineteenth and early twentieth century naturalists collected birds on long and arduous exploratory expeditions in the New World.
'Back in January, when I was enjoying my attendance at the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival down in Florida, I had an enchanting encounter with our national bird , the Bald Eagle. The setting was the Viera Wetlands, a marvelous location that uses the ultimate waste product, sewage, and turns its processing into an incredibly rich wetland environment chock full of a variety of birds, an environment that is also greatly appreciated by a host of birders, photographers, and general nature l
'Back in January, when I was enjoying my attendance at the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival down in Florida, I had an enchanting encounter with our national bird , the Bald Eagle. The setting was the Viera Wetlands, a marvelous location that uses the ultimate waste product, sewage, and turns its processing into an incredibly rich wetland environment chock full of a variety of birds, an environment that is also greatly appreciated by a host of birders, photographers, and general nature l
'The 19-teens were not a good time for North American birdlife. Not more than four years following the final breath of the last living Passenger Pigeon , and at the same facility – the Cincinnati Zoo, whose place in ornithological history is morbidly established – the last Carolina Parakeet died. It was called Incas. And with it the existence of the northernmost species of parrot in the world, the only native parrot in the United States whose provenance is not questioned, and a piece
'When Costa Rica becomes a topic of conversation, we don’t usually hear the word “extinction” being thrown around. You might hear talk about beaches, zip lines, lack of traffic signs (seriously), and volcano visits but extinction? Come on! Must be a joke, right? But how about when the Costa Rica conversation involves a birder? Instead of going on about zip lines and other modern, adventure tourism attractions, the birding crowd talks about taking photos of Resplendent Quetzals
'One summer my father came to visit from his home in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. He is the handiest of handy guys; he has fixed my lighting, the plumbing, wired my entire house so the flip of a switch would make it come alive with music, and, one Christmas, showed my son how to install a major stereo system in his 1996 Jeep Cherokee (which elevated them both to hero status at the local high school).
'Islands, with their high levels of endemism and specialization, are particularly fragile and vulnerable to human activity. The species that manage to colonize these islands evolve in competition with relatively few other species, developing survival strategies based on interdependence, co-evolution, and mutualism rather than adapting to deal with a broad range of predators and competitors.
'I spent both mornings this weekend visiting local birding spots in Queens from the coast to the forested parks. I love birding in the fall because of the sheer number of birds that come through after breeding season and because with molting birds and juvenile birds things can sometimes get a bit challenging. And this weekend was a gorgeous weekend to be out looking for birds.
'For the birder, roads are an ironic boon. Whether made of asphalt, gravel, or dirt, they help us reach more birding sites in less time. In many places, roads bring us to ever distant nature but the downside is that roads also give access to people who would rather replace forests, wetlands, and grasslands with unsustainable housing and agriculture.
'North of Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Queens is a middle class neighborhood, predominantly Italian-American, known as Howard Beach. Named for William J. Howard, a Brooklynite who owned a goat farm in the area in the 1890s, the neighborhood was essentially founded by Howard’s creation of the Howard Estates Development Company, which dredged and filled enough land on which to build a neighborhood.
'Parking lots in Miami-Dade county offer a mostly standard assortment of birds compared to the rest of the United States. We have House Sparrow , Rock Pigeon , and European Starling like almost everyone else along with the usual Ring-billed Gulls that join them in winter. Sure, we also have Common Myna and Boat-tailed Grackle which would be pretty special to most who do not live in Florida.
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'There is no excuse for putting a banner photo like this on a renowned birding site. It’s just that when summer is over and most wildlife rehabilitators are fried, this is the kind of thing that will make most of us fall to our knees, choking with laughter, tears spurting from our eyes. It’s sad but true: by September, we’re far beyond the reach of subtle humor.
'Saturday morning, 30 August 2014, was a perfect time for shorebirding at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge’s East Pond. The high tide was set for late morning so I could take my time getting out there, the sun was going to be out providing enough light for some good digiscoping, and we had a three-day weekend so I could spend more time than usual without really shorting my family.
'If you ask this Great Ornithologist, extinction is an extremely depressing issue. For mankind to snatch away a species’ very existence is wrong on so many levels that I can’t begin to explain them. It is the ultimate expression of ignorance, greed, and rampant anthropocentrism that seemingly drives cultures around the world. However, despite our best efforts to wipe them off the face of the earth, some of the more vulnerable species have managed to hang on.
'One of the less well remembered awful things that happened in the Second World War (a six year period of history filled with an uncountable number of awful things) is that war’s direct role in the extinction of two species of rail. On Midway Island, 1944, a damaged landing craft broke free of moorings and drifted to a small islet that held a translocated population of the Laysan Rail (the species had been lost on its native island due to habitat loss some years earlier).
'My last blog has created quite a discussion among the readers, mostly from US, but also southern and eastern Africa and Europe (apologies if I forgot some region). They were commenting where they felt most at home – on their favourite FB pages (predominantly American Birding Association). I found those comments insightful and inspiring, valuable experiences and opinions worthy of sharing to a wider audience than the FB groups where they were initially posted.
'The recent hubbub in the northeastern United States in terms of rare birds has been all about the Whiskered Tern at Cape May, the third record of this species for North America. All three of those records are from Cape May. You can read more about this awesome bird here. All I really need to say is that I got to Cape May, saw the bird, and was happy.
'I’ve lived in Queens since March of 2008. Over three hundred species of birds have crossed my field of view in Queens in that time including thirty-eight thirty-nine species of shorebird. Why is that thirty-eight crossed out? Because I finally saw a Buff-breasted Sandpiper in my home borough! Finally! Finally! Finally! Buffies are a very fine shorebird.
'So as some folks may have noticed, it seems that the centenniel of the Passenger Pigeon’s extinction is garnering a bit of press. Good, I say. A lot of folks, including this very blog, are using this as an occasion to memorialize not just the Passenger Pigeon but the extinct birds of the Holocene as a group. This got me wondering, what was the centennial of the last Great Auk like?
'American fashion dictates that we retire our white shoes and frocks once the sun sets on Labor Day. Most blame snooty millionaires and sloppy September weather for the changes, but we birders know better. Fall migrants are on the wing, which brings the teeming multitudes of avian observers out in force. What’s the connection? Easy… good birders don’t wear white !
'Now that autumn has fallen, my part of the world feels like summer. Hopefully, October offers more of the same! My best birds this weekend were American Goldfinches on purple coneflowers, which is where I like them best. Corey’s Best Bird of the Weekend was a surprise Marsh Wren which popped up out of the reeds while Corey was busy counting Chimney Swifts feeding low over Willow Lake in Queens on Saturday morning.
'Long-time readers of this blog probably also know Tai Haku, the scuba-diving, tree-planting, bird photographing nature blogger at Earth, Wind, and Water. Back in 2009, Tai Haku sent us a fascinating post exploring a question that ecologists worldwide grapple with: can the translocation of rare species into niches left empty by extinction be successful or justified?
'“I want you / to show me the way,” Peter Frampton sings. Pop music is all well and good for people, but how do birds know the way, when it comes to flying? Two new studies help provide answers. If you’ve ever wondered how ancient birds learned to transition from land to air, then an article in Smithsonian has you covered. It reports on research that attempted to uncover whether flight originally started as a running leap, or a misdirected fall.
'James Russell Lowell famously wondered , “And what is so rare as a day in June? Then, if ever, come perfect days…” Of course, he was on the mark concerning the quality of June days, but don’t you think he might have overlooked September? Corey and I were most pleased to see that shorebirds haven’t entirely abandoned the Esat Pond at Jamaica Bay.
'Early September morning. The sun rises over the village of Chrysochorafa, by Kerkini Lake in the north of Greece, not far from the triple border with Bulgaria and FYRO Macedonia. Barn Swallows and Eurasian Collared Doves on the wires… I was here for the first time in April this year (find about it here ) and easily made up my mind: this is a place worthy of many returns.
'The Bank Swallow ( Riparia riparia ) is North America’s smallest swallow. It can be distinguish from the Northern Rough-winged Swallow by its dark breast band and the white of the throat curling up behind its ear. Click on photos for full sized images. The recently released 2014 State of the Birds Report lists the Bank Swallow as one of the common birds in steep decline.
'This is a hilarious little book all about how to ruin your dog! Or as the cover says, how to ruin your pooch deliberately and with skill! It covers everything, from how to choose your future bad dog, to what types of accessories to get for it. And yes, what it’s really doing is showing you everything NOT to do, while teaching the right things in a hilarious way.
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