This Week in Birding 66

This Week in Birding

:: The government of Alberta is considering a Sandhill Crane hunt for the autumn of 2015

:: The Yurok Tribe Wildlife Program, the Ventana Wildlife Society, and several federal and state government agencies have signed a memorandum of understanding to work toward reintroducing captive-bred California Condors to the north coast region

:: A Saudi prince poached more than 2,100 internationally protected Houbara Bustards in 21-day hunting safari in Pakistan, during which he also hunted in protected areas

:: Birds are continuing to die at the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in San Bernardino County,

:: In February, Oxford University evolutionary biologist Joseph Tobias and colleagues published a study in Nature questioning how widespread character displacement is in nature, focusing on Ovenbirds.

:: The California Department of Food and Agriculture is working with the USDA’s Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service to develop an anthraquinone-based bird repellent to minimize damage to crops such as almonds, lettuce, melons, and ginseng.

:: The continuing California drought is endangering fish and bird populations, including the Tricolored Blackbird, and causing mortality in Foothill Pine trees.

:: There’s a new penguin cam at Antarctica’s Yalour Islands.

:: 28 years after the Chernobyl disaster, researchers have found that birds in the exclusion zone are adapting to, and possibly benefiting from, long-term exposure to radiation.

Great posts in birding blogs this week: 

:: From Jacob at The EyrieBird Courtship

:: From Dan at Bird CanadaSpring Scouting at Frank Lake

:: From Josiah at Birds in Your BackyardSpring has Sprung (Part 4)

:: From Kirby at Birding is FunPledge to Fledge — Every Day!

:: From Larry at The Brownstone Birding BlogThe Secret City Of Great Blue Herons

:: From Rick at the ABA BlogWader Quest in South Australia

:: From Eileen at Viewing Nature with EileenSaturday Walk

:: From Jeff at NeoVista BirdingComing Soon: New Generation of Cooper’s Hawks