I had these links in a draft tucked away sometime in December; apologies for the delay! It's incredibly important to have bird patterns monitored in cases like this, where wind farm development can be modified and bird patterns.
Tracking Golden Eagles via satellite - Eat More Cookies
Tracking Golden Eagles by Satellite; Impact of Large-Scale Wind Farms Studied - Science Daily
Friday, February 25, 2011
Monday, February 14, 2011
Valentine's Cranes
On a somewhat romantic note, this from Sacramento:
Sandhill Cranes are in it for the long haul
A banded pair of Sandhill Cranes has been tracked since the late 1980s, from rearing offspring to migrating and courting; and not too anthropomorphic, all things considered! Except for the first few lines, anyway. From the article:
I certainly mean no offense to those who named the birds, but my hamsters in 4th grade had similar names!
Sandhill Cranes are in it for the long haul
A banded pair of Sandhill Cranes has been tracked since the late 1980s, from rearing offspring to migrating and courting; and not too anthropomorphic, all things considered! Except for the first few lines, anyway. From the article:
Wing to wing, Softie and Sweetie have seen it all, from those exhausting 600-mile flights to Oregon in spring to those chilly nights near Sacramento standing in water 4 inches deep to avoid being gobbled up by coyotes or roughed up by raccoons.
Whatever the bond and no matter the explanation, these two sandhill cranes – majestic and wise and possessing an uncanny number of human traits – have been flying, feeding, parenting and chortling when need be since at least 1987, when a federal researcher trapped them and attached ID bands to their legs.
I certainly mean no offense to those who named the birds, but my hamsters in 4th grade had similar names!
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Penguin followup - NPR link
From the AOL Birding Community newsletter:
Bands attached to penguins’ flippers have helped scientists track their movement and migration for 50 years. Now, a new study reports that the seemingly innocuous bands have a significant effect on penguin mortality. Over a decade, flipper-banded penguins produced 39 percent fewer chicks and had a 44 percent lower survival rate, compared with penguins that did not have bands but had microchips inserted under the skin, according to the study, which appears in the journal Nature. That’s because the bands cause drag as penguins swim, and they are unable to gather food as efficiently for themselves or their chicks, said Claire Saraux, the study’s lead author and a biologist at the French National Center for Scientific Research and the University of Strasbourg.
New York Times
A NPR radio show on the subject of bands harming penguins can be heard at:
NPR.org
Bands attached to penguins’ flippers have helped scientists track their movement and migration for 50 years. Now, a new study reports that the seemingly innocuous bands have a significant effect on penguin mortality. Over a decade, flipper-banded penguins produced 39 percent fewer chicks and had a 44 percent lower survival rate, compared with penguins that did not have bands but had microchips inserted under the skin, according to the study, which appears in the journal Nature. That’s because the bands cause drag as penguins swim, and they are unable to gather food as efficiently for themselves or their chicks, said Claire Saraux, the study’s lead author and a biologist at the French National Center for Scientific Research and the University of Strasbourg.
New York Times
A NPR radio show on the subject of bands harming penguins can be heard at:
NPR.org
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