Page 204 - Cornell Lab News Today

Austin 360 Right before 9 a.m. on March 6, five or six purple martins swooped acrobatically in the wind above the Austin Water Center for Environmental Research at Hornsby Bend. It was a good sign. The first migratory birds of spring had begun to arrive in Central Texas. To prepare for this annual feathery visit, which peaks in late April, I hit some of the area’s top birding spots on multiple mornings not long after the winter storms. Given the travel deficits imposed by the pandemic, this ...

bbloom@ironmountaindailynews.com The Compton tortoiseshell is a good indicator that winter is behind us. (Betsy Bloom/Daily News photos) A hooded merganser shows off at Six Mile Lake. The white-throated sparrow, shown here, and American tree sparrow, below, are familiar to the Upper Peninsula in spring. The Compton tortoiseshell is a good indicator that winter is behind us. (Betsy Bloom/Daily News photos) The start of April means migration will quicken its pace. Like September, its ...

Investigators are looking into an outbreak of salmonella infections in 19 people that could be associated with sick or dead birds, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Birds often carry bacteria such as salmonella, and the germ can spread from birds to pets, and to people.

The nesting burrows of roughly a thousand bank swallows during the summer of 2020. Image: Kaelyn Bumelis By Hannah Brock Scientists are looking at the diet of bank swallows to understand what is causing their population decline. Bank swallows are common across all continents except Australia and Antarctica, but they have mysteriously declined in North America since 1970, according to the Cornell Lab, a bird research laboratory in Ithaca, New York. Bank swallows are a threatened species in Canad...

When bird is the word Interested in bird-watching? Here’s a how-to, where-to, and what-to. By Ty Burr Globe Staff,Updated April 1, 2021, 1 hour ago Email to a Friend The Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge is a great place for bird-watching during migration months.Suzanne Kreiter/Globe staff/file The Tree Swallows are back in Nahanton Park this week. I saw two Eastern Phoebes this morning — first of the year, or FOY. The grackles returned to town weeks ago, rusty door-hinges creaki...

3:46 Columbia is not the only place seeing a rise in new bird-watchers. According to the Associated Press, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology has seen a 102% increase in downloads of its free bird identification app, Merlin ID, last year compared to 2019.  And the best time for new birders to start is the wintertime, according to Jim Gast, the president of the Columbia Audubon Society. “It’s a good time because you don’t have a lot of leaves in the trees that can obscure the birds from your ...

Events Mid-Coast Audubon presents talk on finch irruptions Mid-Coast Audubon and Camden Public Library will host a free online birding presentation on finch irruptions with Matthew Young at 6 p.m. on Thursday. Young worked at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as project lead on the first Finch Irruptive Bird Survey for Bird Source to launch the Finch Research Network (FiRN) in fall 2020. He will discuss what an irruption is, and highlight Redpolls, Pine Grosbeaks, Evening Grosbeaks, and the distri...

Advice for first time bird watchers An expert from Cornell Cooperative Extension has advice for first time bird watchers and how you can set up a feeder. Posted: Mar 15, 2021 6:29 PM Posted By: Violet Scibior The snow is melting and many birds are headed north for spring, which makes bird watching a great activity, especially if you are working from home. We spoke to a local expert for some advice. To get started, buy a bird feeder for your backyard. You want to put it someplace where you can ...

Texas and Philly Join Movement to Dim Lights at Night – Making it Safer for Migrating Birds Mar 16, 2021 Since 1990, cities around the U.S. have gradually been cutting or dimming outdoor lights in order to help one of their most vulnerable populations—migratory birds. Lights Out programs, organized by conservation and civil society groups like the Audubon Society, have sprung up in 20 different states, plus D.C. and Toronto, and involve enlisting the help of landlords, their tenants, ...