NPR has a story on supporters of both cats and birds teaming up to do a D.C. bird count in a cooperative effort to deal with the issue of feral cats killing birds. Read story at To Decrease Bird Kills, Cat Lovers Team Up With Bird Lovers In D.C. Cat Count : NPR
Posted in Animals, Birds | Tags: Feral Cats Killing Birds
The California Professional Firefighters respond to President Trump’s false characterization of California’s forest management policies
“The president’s assertion that California’s forest management policies are to blame for catastrophic wildfire is dangerously wrong. Wildfires are sparked and spread not only in forested areas but in populated areas and open fields fueled by parched vegetation, high winds, low humidity and geography. Moreover, nearly 60 percent of California forests are under federal management, and another two-thirds under private control. It is the federal government that has chosen to divert resources away from forest management, not California.
Read full response at California Professional Firefighters – CPF President Brian Rice Responds to President Attack on CA Fire Response
Posted in Environment | Tags: California Fire Fighters, California Forest Policy, Trump
Center for Biological Diversity New Release
LOS ANGELES— A federal court today ordered the Trump administration to stop issuing permits for offshore fracking in federal waters off the California coast. U.S. District Judge Philip S. Gutierrez concluded that the federal government violated the Endangered Species Act and the Coastal Zone Management Act when it allowed fracking in offshore oil and gas wells in all leased federal waters off California.
“Stopping offshore fracking is a big victory for California’s coast and marine life,” said Kristen Monsell, oceans program legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “We’re glad the Trump administration lost this round in its push to expand dangerous oil operations off California. This decision protects marine life and coastal communities from fracking’s toxic chemicals.”
Posted in Environment | Tags: Offshore Fracking
NPR reports
The rainbow of hues seen in modern bird eggs probably evolved in birds’ dinosaur ancestors, which had eggs with colorful and speckled shells.
That’s according to a new study of fossil eggs in the journal Nature. Researchers found that birds’ close dinosaur relatives had eggs with traces of two pigments—a red-brown one and a blue-green one. This same pair of pigments mixes and matches in today’s bird eggs to produce colors ranging from robin’s egg blue to red to yellow to green.
Read full story at Birds Got Their Colorful, Speckled Eggs From Dinosaurs : NPR
Smithsonian’s National Zoo reports
Findings Give Landowners a Simple Road Map to Provide Essential Habitat for Breeding Birds
Insect-eating birds that depend on the availability of high-calorie, high-protein cuisine — namely caterpillars and spiders — during the breeding season to feed their young are finding the menu severely lacking in backyards landscaped with even a small proportion of nonnative plants, according to a new study from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. This reduction of food availability has led to a decline in the breeding success and population growth of the Carolina chickadee, the study found.
“Landowners are using nonnative plants in their yards because they’re pretty and exotic, they’re easy to maintain, and they tend to have fewer pests on them,” said Desirée Narango, a graduate student researcher at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and first author of the study published Oct. 22 in PNAS. “But it turns out that a lot of those insects they see as pests are actually critical food resources for our breeding birds. For landowners who want to make a difference, our study shows that a simple change they make in their yards can be profoundly helpful for bird conservation.
”The study is the first to directly link the decline of a common resident bird species to the lack of insect prey that results from the use of nonnative plants in landscaping. Narango and colleagues placed nest boxes in more than 160 yards in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area and collected data from homeowners monitoring the nest boxes weekly for Carolina chickadee nests, eggs and nestlings. In those same yards, they also studied adult and juvenile survival by gathering data from the homeowners on individually marked birds they had resighted.
Read more at: New Smithsonian Study Links Declines in Suburban Backyard Birds to Presence of Nonnative Plants | Smithsonian’s National Zoo
Posted in Birds | Tags: Backyard Birds, Native Plants, Non-native Plants
Center for Biological Diversity News Release
GREAT FALLS, Mont.— A federal judge ruled today that the Trump administration violated bedrock U.S. environmental laws when approving a federal permit for TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline project. The judge blocked any construction on the pipeline and ordered the government to revise its environmental review.
The decision is a significant setback for a pipeline that investors are already seriously questioning. TransCanada has not yet announced a Final Investment Decision on whether to move forward and build Keystone XL should it receive all the necessary permits.
U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris found that the Trump administration’s reliance on a stale environmental review from 2014 violated the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act and the Administrative Procedure Act. This ruling follows the court’s previous decision on August 15 to require additional analysis of the new route through Nebraska.
Posted in Environment | Tags: Keystone Pipeline
Berkeleyside reports
From Oct. 31 through March 31, South Park Drive will be closed to all automotive traffic, and cyclists are asked to proceed slowly and keep an eye out for the little beady-eyed creatures, which usually run five to six inches long. Dogs, while still allowed off-leash, must be under voice control. Drivers can use the alternative routes of Grizzly Peak Boulevard, Wildcat Canyon Road and Central Park Drive during the five-month closure.
Read more at South Park Drive in Tilden Park closed for 5 months to protect newts — Berkeleyside
Posted in Animals, Drives, Park | Tags: Newts, Tilden Park
Fall Colors in Mono County – Mono County Tourism reports below. See photos at: Fall Colors in Mono County – Mono County Tourism and Film Commission
November 8, 2018: Fall colors are officially past peak in Mono County! Missed the colors this season? Plan your trip for next year for late September through the end of October.
The LA Times reported
It’s an “amazing plant” that produces “hypnotic effects,” according to online testimonials. Some people who have ingested it or inhaled its smoke say it gave them a mild, marijuana-like high.
Now scientists have weighed in. In experiments with more than 100 mice, they found that chemicals in the liverwort plant produced four of the same key effects as THC, the primary psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.
Read full story at A chemical found in liverwort has surprising similarities to the THC in marijuana – Los Angeles Times
Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: LIverwort
Posted in Fall Foliage
Project FeederWatch is a joint project of the CornellLab of Orthology and Bird Studies Canada. Please join the project for the country in which you reside.
Join now for the 2018–19 season, which begins November 10 and runs through April 5. ID numbers needed for data entry are printed on the letter that comes in the instructional kit mailed to all first-time participants. It takes about 3 weeks for a kit to arrive and for an ID number to be activated online, even for renewing participants. You can start getting ready for the coming season by reading our online instructions, and you can enter the Your Data portion of our website after your kit arrives and your ID number is activated.
Get more information and to sign up go to Join, Renew, or Donate – FeederWatch
Posted in Birds | Tags: Project Feederwatch
California Fall Color has new posts including the northern coastal redwood parks, Yosemite and Shasta area. Highlights include:
See many photos and full detailed reports at California Fall Color
Posted in Fall Foliage | Tags: Autumn Color, Autumn Foliage, Autumn leaf color, California Fall Color, Fall Color, Fall Foliage
It is Polar Bear week November 4 to 10
Polar Bears International announces for Polar Bear Week
It coincides with the fall polar bear migration to Churchill, Manitoba, where polar bears gather to wait for freeze-up on Hudson Bay so they can return to hunting seals. During Polar Bear Week, we focus on the importance of sea ice to polar bears—and why we must take action on climate change to ensure their survival.
In honor of Polar Bear Week, we’ve planned the busiest schedule of events yet and hope you’ll join us. Here’s what’s on the radar:
Read more about Polar Bear Week at It’s Polar Bear Week – Polar Bears International
Posted in Animals | Tags: Polar Bear Week
The LA Times reports
Scientists have discovered an octopus nursery of sorts in Monterey Bay.
More than 1,000 of the cephalopods were seen last week clustered in a previously unexplored, federally protected area off California’s coast, their bodies tucked upside down into nooks with their tentacles inverted and covering clusters of white eggs.
Read article at What brought more than 1,000 octopuses to nurse their eggs in Monterey Bay? – Los Angeles Times
Posted in Animals | Tags: Octopus Eggs
CornellLab of Ornithology is offer a free class on how to use eBird. If you are not familiar with eBird or don’t feel you have mastered all of its features it is worth a look.
Explore how eBird can help spark new birding adventures.
eBird is the largest biological citizen-science program in the world. The eBird community gathers more than 100 million bird sightings each year from people like you. Providing a powerful tool for motivated bird enthusiasts everywhere, eBird helps you find more birds and keep track of your sightings. Collectively, these sightings are now empowering a global scientific community and helping answer pressing conservation questions.
Discover how eBird can help jump-start your birding and how your sightings contribute to science and conservation on a global level.
Learn how to use eBird to find birds and birding locations.
Use this step-by-step guide to contribute your sightings to eBird.
Explore your own birding story: your lists, photos, custom alerts for target species, and much more.
Take the Ready to eBird quiz and get inspired to spot more birds.
Posted in Birds, Class/Workshop | Tags: Free eBird Class
California Fall Color has new posts. Highlights include:
See many photos and full detailed reports at California Fall Color
Posted in Fall Foliage | Tags: Autumn Color, Autumn Foliage, Autumn leaf color, California Fall Color, Fall Color, Fall Foliage
Channel Islands National Park News Release
Ventura, CA — During a lecture on Thursday, November 8, 2018, Dr. Jonathan Hoffman with the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History (SBNMH) will discuss the research plans for a significant sea cow fossil discovered on Santa Rosa Island in 2017.
The sea cow fossil is one of the oldest of its kind found on the west coast of North America, with an estimated age of 20-25 million years old. It is the first sea cow fossil discovered on the Channel Islands and it may represent a new species.
Hoffman will provide an understanding of how the sea cow specimen was deposited on Santa Rosa Island, its discovery, and the efforts to protect the specimen from scouring winds and winter rains, as well as the requisite need for excavation to prevent its loss due to erosion.
The many challenges encountered during the excavation process will be highlighted, along with the scientific studies planned by various researchers and institutions and what they hope to learn about the environment in which sea cows lived.
NPR
A group of young people can sue the federal government over its climate change policies, the Supreme Court said Friday. Since it was first filed in 2015, the government has requested several times that Juliana v. United States be dismissed.
Read story at Young Activists Can Sue Government Over Climate Change, Supreme Court Says : NPR
Posted in Environment | Tags: Climate Change Lawsuits
NPR reports
The National Butterfly Center, a 100-acre wildlife center and botanical garden in South Texas, provides a habitat for more than 100 species of butterflies.
It also sits directly in the path of the Trump administration’s proposed border wall.
The federal spending bill approved in September includes $1.6 billion in 2019 for construction of the wall. In October, the Department of Homeland Security issued a waiver to 28 laws protecting public lands, wildlife and the environment to clear the way for construction to proceed.
Read full story at Butterfly Preserve On The Border Threatened By Trump’s Wall : NPR
Posted in Butterflies | Tags: Border Wall, Butterflies
The New York Times has an excellent video about “The first people to view our planet from the moon were transformed by the experience. In this film, they tell their story.”
at Opinion | A First Glimpse of Our Magnificent Earth, Seen From the Moon – The New York Times
Posted in Astronomy | Tags: Earth View
The New York Times reported on the surprising appearance of a Mandarin Duck in Central Park. Read story and see video at A Mandarin Duck Mysteriously Appears in Central Park, to Birders’ Delight
Posted in Birds | Tags: Mandarin Duck in Central Park
Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie
A few pops of color can still be seen on the prairie, including the crimson colored rosehips. The grasses have mostly all turned their autumn shades of brown.
The Shawnee National Forest colors have amplified over the past week. The trees are twice as colorful with all the Yellow, Orange and Red colors. With the beautiful colors of the trees and temperatures change we will start seeing a lot more color change. This is the time pf year you need to put on your hiking shoes and enjoy the beautiful Shawnee. For some spectacular views, check out One Horse Gap in Pope County.
Fall colors are in full swing! The maples are bright yellow and red, the tulip poplars are yellow and brown, the sycamores are green and yellow, and the oaks are green and orange. Just in time for Halloween we have breathtaking colors! Though strong winds and heavy rains are in the forecast this week, it should clear up by the week-end, providing a great opportunity for a scenic drive through the Forest.
Vox reports
Today, we have new data that paints a bleak picture of what’s happening to the animal kingdom right now. On Tuesday, WWF, the international wildlife conservation nonprofit, released its biennial Living Planet Report, a global assessment of the health of animal populations all over the world. Here’s the topline finding: The average vertebrate (birds, fish, mammals, amphibians) population has declined 60 percent since 1970.
Read full article at: New WWF “Living Planet” report finds huge animal losses – Vox
Posted in Animals, Environment | Tags: Severe Wildlife Population Decline
The Times Virginian reports
According to various reports, warmer temperatures and recent wet weather delayed the color transition by a few weeks from its typical showing in previous years.
This year, peak fall foliage is expected around Nov. 5, according to the SmokyMountains.com Fall Foliage Prediction Map.
Read full article at Fall Foliage peak is approaching – Times Virginian: News
Posted in Fall Foliage | Tags: Autumn Color, Autumn Foliage, Autumn leaf color, Fall Color, Fall Foliage, Virginia Fall Color
Fall Colors in Mono County – Mono County Tourism reports below. See photos at: Fall Colors in Mono County – Mono County Tourism and Film Commission
October 31, 2018: One of the most spectacular fall color seasons in recent memory is slowly coming to an end. Most locations in Mono County are now past peak with the exception of Lower Rock Creek Trail, the West Walker River and the towns of Walker, Coleville and Topaz. All these locations are at full peak and will have good color for the next 5 days or so. You’ll still find some groves still hanging around in places like the June Lake Loop and Lundy Canyon but the vast majority of destinations are now past peak.
100% Peaking GO NOW!
-Walker Canyon – Great color along the banks of the West Walker River with some sections past peak already. The best color is located near Mountain Gate Park closer to Walker.
-Walker, Coleville and Topaz – Gorgeous, massive cottonwoods lining Hwy. 395 are beautiful now and should be great for another 5 days or so. Topaz Lake is at full peak and is perfect for sunrises or sunsets right now.
-Lower Rock Creek Road – Lower Rock Creek near the town of Paradise still has some nice color. Take lower rock creek trail for the last sections of peaking aspens. Past Peak up past Tom’s Place.
WALKER / COLEVILLE / TOPAZ
Monitor Pass (8,314′) – Past Peak
Lobdell Lake Road (8,600′) – Past Peak
Walker Canyon (5,200′) – 75-100% Go Now – Great color along the banks of the West Walker River with some sections past peak already. The best color is located near Mountain Gate Park closer to Walker.
Walker, Coleville and Topaz – 75-100% Go Now – Gorgeous, massive cottonwoods lining Hwy. 395 are beautiful now and should be great for another 5 days or so. Topaz Lake is at full peak and is perfect for sunrises or sunsets right now.
Sonora Pass (9,623′) – Past Peak
BRIDGEPORT / VIRGINIA LAKES
Twin Lakes (7,000′) – Past Peak with a few groves still hanging around at Lower Twin.
Virginia Lakes (9,819’) – Past Peak
Conway Summit (8,143) – Past Peak
Summers Meadow (7,200′) – Past Peak
LEE VINING
Tioga Pass (9,943′) – Past peak
Lee Vining Canyon (6,781′) Past Peak
Lundy Lake & Canyon (7,858′) Past Peak with a few groves still showing color near the campground and along the road.
BENTON & 120 EAST
Sagehen Summit (8,139’) – Past Peak
JUNE LAKE LOOP
June Lake Loop/Hwy 158 (7,654′) Past Peak with a few groves still having leaves.
MAMMOTH LAKES
Follow Visit Mammoth on Instagram and Facebook for more!
Mammoth Lakes Basin (8,996′) – Past Peak
CROWLEY LAKE/McGEE CREEK/CONVICT LAKE
McGee Creek Canyon (8,600’) Past Peak
Around Crowley community (6,781′) Past Peak
Convict Lake (7850′) 75-100% Past Peak
ROCK CREEK CANYON
Lower Rock Creek Road (9,600’) – 100% Lower Rock Creek near the town of Paradise still has some nice color. Take lower rock creek trail for the last sections of peaking aspens. Past Peak up past Tom’s Place.
California Fall Color has new posts. Highlights include:
See many photos and full detailed reports at California Fall Color
Posted in Fall Foliage | Tags: Autumn Color, Autumn Foliage, Autumn leaf color, California Fall Color, Fall Color, Fall Foliage
Yankee Fall foliage’s map now shows fall color is is now fading in most of New England. Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and much of Massachusetts. Rhode Island and Connecticut are showing peak color. Check out the continuing updated map and location reports at New England Fall Foliage.
Posted in Fall Foliage | Tags: Autumn Color, Autumn Foliage, Autumn leaf color, Fall Color, Fall Foliage, New England Fall Color
New York Fall Foliage reports Week of October 31 – November 6, 2018
Posted in Fall Foliage | Tags: Autumn Color, Autumn Foliage, Autumn leaf color, Fall Color, Fall Foliage, New York Fall Color
Birding Field Trips and Walks with Golden Gate Audubon
for more information on above walks go to Upcoming Field Trips | Golden Gate Audubon Society
Posted in Birds | Tags: Bay Area Birding Field Trips, Bird Walks, Birding Field Trips, Birds
The BBC reports
Scientists have produced new evidence that climate change is driving tropical bird species who live near a mountain top to extinction.
Researchers have long predicted many creatures will seek to escape a warmer world by moving towards higher ground.
However, those living at the highest levels cannot go any higher, and have been forecast to decline.
Read full story at Climate change is ‘escalator to extinction’ for mountain birds – BBC News
Posted in Birds, Environment | Tags: Climate change, Extinction Risk, Mountain Birds
Natural History Wanderings 