Birding News #74

:: A Bicknell’s Thrush that was banded in the Dominican Republic while wintering there in 2010 has been has been re-captured for the second time on Mount Mansfield in Vermont.

:: Do birds use properties of quantum mechanics to help them make their annual migrations?

:: Rufus the Hawk is “the Most Important Bird at Wimbledon”.

:: A report by the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute, “Climate Change Vulnerability of Alberta’s Terrestrial Biodiversity: A Preliminary Assessment”, which studied the sensitivity of amphibians, birds, insects, mammals, and plants — to an average predicted temperature increase of between 2.5 C to 3.5 C in the next 40 years — suggests that birds are among the least vulnerable species because they would simply move with a changing climate.

:: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has filed a lawsuit against the US Dept. of Agriculture alleging that the agency has failed to protect birds under the provisions of the Animal Welfare Act.

:: The US Fish & Wildlife Service has downgraded the Wood Stork from “endangered” to “threatened”.

:: According to a study published in the journal Polar Biology, the migrating shorebirds that breed on on the coastal tundra of Alaska’s North Slope seem to be responding to earlier snow melting by speeding up their nesting activities.

:: Saving the Western Grebe, recently listed by the Alberta government as a threatened species, means limiting lakeside recreational development, including preserving crucial shoreline vegetation like bulrushes.

:: With Piping Plovers nesting on the beach, and federal regulations protecting the species, the town of Duxbury, Massachusetts, has cancelled its annual Fourth of July beach bonfire celebration.

Great post in birding blogs this week:

:: From Brian Switek at Laelaps blog: Tracing the Roots of Beautiful Bird Hues

:: From Sharon at Bird Canada: Sparrows, sparrows, everywhere …

:: From Justin at Birding Frontiers: Digiscoping Majestic Gannets

:: From Scott at Birding is Fun: The Joy of Contributing to Florida’s Breeding Bird Atlas

:: From Barbara at Primarily Pets: Loons – a favorite water bird

:: From Kathie at Kathie’s Birds: Family and Birding

:: From Len at Focussed at Fauna (and a little flora): Sooty Grouse June 9 2014 Hemlock, British Columbia

:: From Nicholas at Hipster Birders: Finding Something of Everything at Ankeny NWR

:: From Rick at Wader Quest: Separating Baird’s and White-rumped Sandpipers