Mexico is banning the capture and trade of its wild parrots.

President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa has signed into law a bill to ban the capture and export of Mexican wild parrots. The bill, introduced one year ago by the Environment Commission of the Deputy Chamber, was passed in the Mexican Senate on 22 April, 2008 with near unanimous support (66 votes in favor, 0 votes against, and 1 abstention).

The bill was originally drafted after a presentation of the 2007 report "The Illegal Parrot Trade in Mexico: A Comprehensive Assessment" by Defenders of Wildlife and Teyeliz, A.C. The report revealed for the first time the volume of the illegal trade of parrots within Mexico. An estimated 65,000 -78,500 wild parrots and macaws are captured illegally each year, with more than 75 percent of the birds dying before ever reaching a purchaser. Approximately 50,000 to 60,000 parrots die this way each year in Mexico alone....

Mexico is home to 22 species of parrots and macaws, of which six are found nowhere else in the world. Approximately 90 percent of all parrots and macaws found in Mexico are in some category of risk. The latest Mexican classification (yet to be published) lists 11 species as endangered, five as threatened, four as requiring special protection, and two as unclassified.

Of course, a lot will depend on enforcement, but it is good news nonetheless.

A group of researchers is working on a way to identify sources of environmental mercury, particularly methylmercury, by analyzing isotopes.

Mercury is a naturally occurring element, but some 2000 tons of it enter the environment each year from human-generated sources such as incinerators, chlorine-producing plants and coal-burning power plants. Mercury is deposited onto land or into water, where microorganisms convert some of it to methylmercury, a highly toxic form that builds up in fish and the animals that eat them. In wildlife, exposure to methylmercury can interfere with reproduction, growth, development and behavior and may even cause death....

For the past eight years, Blum and co-workers have been trying to develop a way of reading mercury fingerprints in coal and other sources of mercury. The hope was that they could then find those same fingerprints in soil and water bodies, much as a detective matches a suspect's fingerprints to those found at a crime scene, and use them to figure out exactly what the sources of mercury pollution are in certain areas....

The fingerprinting technique relies on a natural phenomenon called isotopic fractionation, in which different isotopes (atoms with different numbers of neutrons) of mercury react to form new compounds at slightly different rates. In one type of isotopic fractionation, mass-dependent fractionation (MDF), the differing rates depend on the masses of the isotopes. In mass-independent fractionation (MIF), the behavior of the isotopes depends not on their absolute masses but on whether their masses are odd or even. Combining mass-dependent and mass-independent isotope signals, the researchers created a powerful fingerprinting tool.

Previously, Blum and coworkers investigated the possibility of using the method to identify sources of mercury contamination in fish. The coal project was more challenging because of the difficulty of extracting and concentrating mercury from coal. The researchers developed a system that slowly burns the coal under controlled conditions in a series of furnaces and then traps the mercury that is released.

If those sources could be identified, then perhaps some contamination could be reduced. Environmental mercury is a pressing issue, primarily because of its threat to humans (who ingest it while eating fish). It also is a conservation issue for many bird species, especially wood thrushes, that absorb high levels of mercury and methylmercury through their diets.

Even a global temperature increase of 2°C is likely to cause sharp declines in penguin colonies.

A new WWF report – 2°C is Too Much – shows that the colonies of 50 per cent of the iconic emperor penguins and 75 per cent of the Adélie penguins are under threat.

Climate change models forecast that a 2°C temperature rise above pre-industrial level could be a reality in less than 40 years, producing a strong reduction in the sea ice cover of the Southern Ocean which is an essential nesting and feeding ground for Emperor and Adélie penguins.

A reduction in the sea ice is also likely to have a knock-on effect on the abundance of krill, which is a vital food source for penguins....

A rise in global average temperatures of 2°C is widely regarded as a threshold level for unacceptable risks of dangerous climate change. Many recent climate models forecast likely temperatures rises in excess of this.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is pushing for a new international agreement to reduce greenhouse gases, to replace the Kyoto Protocol. That may well happen. I am afraid, though, that without a full commitment from the major greenhouse gas producing countries we will see many of these dire predictions happen.

Many environmentalists have been promoting shade-grown coffee as a way to protect important migratory bird habitat in Latin America. (Shade plantations, with their layered vegetative structure, have much higher bird diversity than sun plantations.) This growing arrangement, which is actually the traditional way of farming coffee, may also benefit coffee producers. Shade coffee plants appear to survive extreme weather events in much better condition than their sun-grown counterparts.

In the October edition of the journal BioScience, three U-M researchers say shade-growing also shields coffee plants during extreme weather events, such as droughts and severe storms. Climate models predict that extreme weather events will become increasingly common in the coming decades, as the levels of heat-trapping carbon dioxide gas continue to mount.

The U-M scientists warn Latin American farmers of the risks tied to "coffee-intensification programs"---a package of technologies that includes the thinning of canopies and the use of high-yield coffee strains that grow best in direct sunlight---and urge them to consider the greener alternative: shade-grown coffee....

The livelihoods of more than 100 million people worldwide are tied to coffee production. In Latin America, most coffee farms lack irrigation---relying solely on rainwater---which makes them especially vulnerable to drought and heat waves.

Shade trees help dampen the effects of drought and heat waves by maintaining a cool, moist microclimate beneath the canopy. The optimal temperature range for growing common Arabica coffee is 64 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

Shade trees also act as windbreaks during storms and help reduce runoff and erosion.

Another benefit is that shade coffee plants often have higher yields because more pollinators are available for fertilization.

When I walked in the state park yesterday evening, I saw more evidence that the local bird population is shifting from summer to winter avifauna. A few days ago, I saw my first yellow-rumped warblers, ruby-crowned kinglets, and golden-crowned kinglets of the season. Yesterday I added white-throated sparrow and dark-eyed junco to the winter bird tally. Shorebirds, terns, and egrets are mostly gone from Bunker Pond, and in their place are small flocks of dabbling ducks. Last night, there were green-winged teal, northern shovelers, American wigeon, and gadwall. In addition, the hawk watch reported a rough-legged hawk.

However, I also saw a house wren and a lingering blackpoll warbler, so the transition is not complete.

My sightings included swamp sparrows, a Lincoln's sparrow, and a white-crowned sparrow.

The recently-published State of the World's Birds reports that biodiversity loss is increasing as quickly as ever.

State of the Worlds Birds highlights several indicators that help to measure progress towards the 2010 target. The Red List Index for birds, based on the number and status of threatened species, shows that bird species are slipping faster than ever towards extinction. Other measures, including the Wild Bird Index for Europe, highlight rapid erosion around the world in the populations of more common and widespread birds, including songbirds, birds of prey, waterbirds and many migrant species. Initial results from monitoring of key sites, the Important Bird Areas, shows that their condition continues to deteriorate, though, encouragingly, more conservation responses are being put in place.

“Overall, the rate of deterioration has been speeding up since our last global assessment in 2004,” says Alison Stattersfield. “The accelerating decline in relatively common and widespread birds is especially alarming and can be linked to ever-increasing pressures on natural habitats. Our data suggest that recent policy changes such as the drive towards producing biofuels are damaging biodiversity and seriously undermining efforts to meet the 2010 target.”

Birds are relatively easy to census and monitor over the long term. They also tend to sit near the tops of their respective food webs. That makes them good indicators for the overall health of the ecosystems they inhabit. If we are still losing birds at such an alarming rate, then presumably we are losing an even larger number of other species.

This afternoon I saw my first yellow-rumped warbler, golden-crowned kinglet, and ruby-crowned kinglet of the season. For me, the appearance of those species signals a shift towards the winter flocks that will be with us through April. Creepers and juncos cannot be far behind.

The Boneyard #24 is now up at The Other 95%.

Linnaeus' Legacy #12 is now up at Podblack Cat.

Project FeederWatch will be starting on November 8 and is looking for volunteers. FeederWatch participants watch their feeders for a period of time at least once a week and report the sightings back to CLO. The collective data from many participants is used to monitor winter migration and distribution of songbirds, as well as long-term population trends.

A few months ago, I wrote about a study that found that greater bird diversity reduces the chances of human infection with the West Nile Virus. Now a second article has reported the same finding with some of the same data (e.g., the Breeding Bird Survey) as well as some field work of their own.

Allan and numerous graduate students began the research five years ago as they just entered graduate school and the topic of West Nile Virus was just beginning to receive lots of attention and the ecology of the organism hadn't been studied much. They identified a variety of field sites, both urban and rural, with their base of operations at Washington University's Tyson Research Center, a facility 22 miles west of St. Louis comprised of 2,000 acres of woods, glades and prairie.

They performed bird surveys at the sites, put up a variety of mosquito traps and studied different mosquito species and their ability to transmit the virus. Using kits provided by the Center for Disease Control, they tested the mosquitoes and found three positive pools.

"The infection rates are actually remarkably low, with maybe one in 1,000 carrying WNV," Allan said....

According to the researchers, they found that diversity is important both in the number of species and their proportions to each other. It does little good to have ten species in an area if two or three predominate. The ones most likely to predominate, like grackles and robins, are also the most likely to carry West Nile Virus and spread it to humans via mosquitos.

Protection from disease is yet another reason to protect wildlife diversity.

As I walked into one of the blind sites yesterday morning, I was met by flocks of sparrows. All around me there were dozens of swamp sparrows. They were joined by smaller numbers of savannah sparrows, song sparrows, and even a possible Lincoln's sparrow. Oddly enough, Morning Flight did not pick up a sparrow movement at all, which makes me wonder if these sparrows were new overnight arrivals, or ones that have been hanging around a few days longer. Whenever they arrived, I am glad they are here because I love sparrows, especially swamp sparrows. While cycling towards the site, I thought I heard a kinglet calling from the side of the road, but I passed too quickly for a sure ID.

Unfortunately my Cape May roadkill list has gotten longer in the last few days. Yesterday I added swamp sparrow, and the day before I found a northern parula.

In the past year, Brazil has seen an unprecedented invasion of Magellanic penguins. The penguins have been washing up on the beaches by the thousands. When they arrive, they are starving and exhausted.

So far, the cause is unknown. The most obvious candidate is climate change, which can affect the circulation of ocean currents. Unfortunately, the effects of climate change on the oceans is not well understood.

"This is extreme, but we don't have statistics on the number of penguins and the ocean temperatures," said José Marengo, a climatologist at Brazil's National Institute for Space Research and a member of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. "Some of the most important uncertainties we have are on the oceanic currents."

There have been other unusual changes in the oceans off Brazil. In 2004, scientists recorded Catarina, the first-ever hurricane generated in the South Atlantic. But only in the last 10 to 15 years have satellites been gathering information on the eddies moving across the Atlantic, and there is not a firm scientific grasp of where and why currents such as the Falkland end, said Antonio Busalacchi, an oceanography and climate expert at the University of Maryland.

"Clearly we've been seeing changes in the ocean circulation in the Southern Hemisphere," he said. "The question for the future, and we don't have an answer yet, is how is that going to shift against the backdrop of climate change?"

For now, zoos and veterinarians are rehabilitating what penguins they can. Once penguins have recovered, they will be shipped south and sent back out to sea, so that they can find their way back to their normal territories. As long as the cause remains a mystery, however, there is a danger that this phenomenon could cease being an anomaly and become a trend.

New Jersey has approved its first offshore wind farm, following the lead of similar projects in Delaware and Rhode Island.

The proposal by Garden State Offshore Energy includes the installation of 96 turbines to produce as much as 346 megawatts of electricity, enough to power tens of thousands of houses, starting in 2013. The turbines would be arranged in a rectangle about a half-mile long by one-third of a mile wide and would be placed 16 to 20 miles off the coast of New Jersey’s Atlantic and Ocean Counties, much farther out and in much deeper water than other proposed wind farms. Deepwater Wind, which will work with P.S.E.G. to build the wind farm, said it could affordably build turbines in 100 feet of water with the same technology used to build oil and gas rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and other places.

Because the wind blows more reliably during the day farther offshore, the company expects to be able to more readily tap into the higher prices available on the power market at peak times. And by putting the turbines so far out, the company hopes to blunt opposition from environmentalists and residents who say that turbines diminish ocean views and damage wildlife.

“People don’t have to choose between clean energy and a clear view,” said Nelson Garcez, a vice president of P.S.E.G. Global. Mr. Garcez said the deep-water turbines would produce enough power to help the company break even in about seven years.

The next step is for Garden State Offshore Energy to seek permits from state and federal agencies to build offshore. The company will also have to get commitments from manufacturers to build the turbines, which would be assembled in New Jersey and could potentially create hundreds of new jobs.

Here is a map with the planned wind farm site.

Offshore wind has a lot of potential for easing some of our electric supply and replacing dirtier forms of power generation. On the U.S. East Coast wind resources are far better off shore than on shore, even on mountain ridges. That means that future eastern wind projects are likely to gravitate towards the coast, assuming that this project succeeds and further permits are forthcoming.

A big concern for birders is how much this and other proposed wind farms will affect wildlife, principally birds but also marine mammals and other aquatic creatures. Little research is available to answer that question, but at least one study suggests that waterbirds can avoid the turbines. For migrating birds, it remains an open question. There is an ongoing project here in Cape May that conducts regular ship-based visual surveys of birds offshore. I hope that the data they collect will influence the precise siting of the farm and turbines.

It turns out that changes in the Alaskan sea otter population are affecting the bald eagles that nest along the coasts. Otters, like eagles, are top predators and help maintain the ecosystems in which they reside.

In nearshore marine communities, towering kelp can reach heights of 250 feet and function much like trees in a forest, providing food, homes and protection for fish and invertebrates. The most important enemies of these giant algae are tiny sea urchins, only inches in diameter, which live on the kelp's holdfasts and eat its tissue. When urchin populations become too large, they can defoliate entire kelp forests, leaving only barren remains.

Enter the sea otter. Otters can eat the spiky urchins whole, making them the major urchin predator. The otters' presence keeps urchin populations in check and maintains the balance of the ecosystem.

So what happens when the otters disappear?

"All of the available data point to increased numbers of killer whales as the direct cause of the sea otter decline in southwest Alaska," says coauthor Jim Estes of the U.S.G.S. and the University of California at Santa Cruz. "The otter decline has caused a phase shift in the coastal ecosystem from a kelp dominated phase state to a deforested phase state."

This shift means many fewer kelp forest fish for the eagles to eat. In response, the eagles have adjusted their foraging tactics. Anthony and his colleagues surveyed remains of bald eagle prey in their nests during 1993 and 1994, when otters were abundant and the kelp forests were healthy, and in 2000, 2001 and 2002, when otters were scarce and the kelp forests had collapsed. They found that when otters were abundant, eagle prey consisted of predominantly kelp-forest fish and sea otter pups. When the otters were rare, however, the proportion of marine birds in the eagles' diet was much higher.

It would be interesting to know how much this change affects marine birds, all of which have their own sets of ecosystem interactions.

The Bush administration has announced that it will reconsider its previous decisions about protections for marbled murrelets in response to a timber industry lawsuit.

In a Federal Register filing obtained by the Center for Biological Diversity and scheduled for publication Thursday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says it will consider "the rangewide status of the species, and if necessary, the configuration and status of any distinct population segments."

Much of the previous maneuvering had to do with whether the birds in California, Oregon and Washington are a "distinct population segment," unlike murrelets in British Columbia and Alaska. The law protects such a distinct segment of an animal's population.

The Bush administration's previous finding said the Lower 48's birds did not qualify. But Noah Greenwald of the Center for Biological Diversity noted that the Federal Register notice itself concludes the decision was "flawed."

It is hard to predict what decisions this review will produce, but since most of the work will be done after Bush leaves office, there may actually be an evidence-based decision instead of an ideological one. If so, it would be a change for the better, regardless of the outcome.

Go read I and the Bird #85 at 10,000 Birds.

According to a British study, wind farms do not pose a serious risk for open-country passerines.

"The message on farmland specifically is that, so far, the evidence we have gathered shows that there is little effect on farmland birds," explained co-author Mark Whittingham, from Newcastle University's School of Biology.

The team carried out surveys around two wind farms located in the East Anglian fens, recording almost 3,000 birds from 23 different species.

Their data showed that the presence of the turbines did not affect the distribution of seed-eating birds, corvids or skylarks.

"This is the first evidence suggesting that the present and future location of large numbers of wind turbines on European farmland is unlikely to have detrimental effects on farmland birds," said Dr Whittingham.

Unfortunately this study does not address the potential risks for raptors and possibly waterfowl. It also found some changes in the distribution of pheasants, suggesting that related species may also be affected. Another limitation is that the surveys were conducted during the winter months. Breeding surveys may show a different picture.

That said, surveys like this are still helpful since they help narrow down the list of species we need to worry about, especially if the result holds at other times of year.

For more about wind power in a different environment, see Nick's discussion and excerpts from the DEIS for the Cape Wind project between Cape Cod and Nantucket.

A census of breeding Kirtland's warblers turned up the highest count since 1951, with 1,791 singing males. It is not clear from the article whether that number includes the pairs in Wisconsin and Ontario, or just counts birds in Michigan. Despite the high numbers, the warbler species remains vulnerable because of its specialized habitat needs.

The singing male population has exceeded 1,000 for seven consecutive years. Scientists previously established five years as a key threshold for declaring the Kirtland's warbler recovered.

Even so, it's widely agreed the warbler cannot be removed from the federal endangered list for the foreseeable future because its peculiar habitat requirements make it unable to survive without human assistance.

It nests and breeds almost entirely in young jack pine stands of the type found in Michigan's northeastern Lower Peninsula, while spending winters in the Bahamas.

State and federal agencies use clearcutting and burning to remove older trees in the Michigan habitat zone. They plant or seed about 3,000 acres of jack pines each year on state and federal lands.

Habitat specialists like Kirtland's warbler are increasingly vulnerable as our landscape becomes more homogenized and humans encroach on formerly wild areas. Kirtland's warblers depend on jack pine trees between 16 and 20 years old for nesting. The trouble is that jack pine cones will only release seeds after fires, which also kill the older trees. Under wild conditions, fires will occur often enough (thanks to lightning strikes and the like) to maintain sufficient habitat for breeding warblers. However, when fire suppression is common, to protect either houses or potential lumber, available habitat will shrink rapidly, as it did in the 20th century. Thus we need constant intervention, in order to mitigate the side effects of other forms of intervention.

The oldest known feathered dinosaur precursor to birds, the newly-discovered Epidexipteryx hui, may have used its feathers principally for ornamentation rather than flight.

The remains date back 152 million to 168 million years ago, making the newfound creature slightly older than Archaeopteryx, the most primitive known bird....

Researchers think the pigeon-size Epidexipteryx might have used its plumes as flashy ornaments, since it was mostly covered in short feathers that lack the structure necessary for flight.

"For example, [the feathers] could potentially have played a role in displays intended to attract a mate, scare off a rival, or send a warning signal to other individuals of the same species," said study co-author Fucheng Zhang, a paleontologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing....

"It shows that the use of feathers for visual communication—as opposed to other functions such as insulation and flight—was a very early development."

The fossil (pictured above) was discovered in Inner Mongolia in 2007. It shows long tail feathers on the left and what appears to be a ridge of feathers along its back.

Delaware has two hawk watching stations, at Ashland Nature Center and Cape Henlopen State Park. The two sites are both operated by the Delmarva Ornithological Society but record different sets of species.

Hawk Watch Hill is one of two Delaware hawk sites staffed by a full-time coordinator; the other is Cape Henlopen State Park. Both programs are funded by the Delmarva Ornithological Society, with additional support from other nature organizations.

Matt Sileo is the coordinator at Ashland, and Forrest Rowland holds that role at Cape Henlopen. Rowland is quick to opine that the views from Cape Henlopen's Hawk Watch platform rival those at Ashland's Hawk Watch Hill.

"The platform is situated near Cape Henlopen's point, and it's quite a commanding view, what with all the raptors overhead and the ocean as a backdrop," says Rowland.

Due to its location on the coast, Cape Henlopen's migration is different from Ashland's.

"We get lots of ospreys and falcons," says Rowland. "And we don't tend to have peak days the way Ashland does. Instead, it's a pretty consistent stream of birds now through the third week of October. We do see raptors after that, though, so we stay open through Nov. 20."

I have been watching the reports from Cape Henlopen with interest over the past several weeks since Cape Henlopen lies just across the Delaware Bay from Cape May. (A ferry makes multiple daily trips between the two capes.) On several occasions, the number of raptors counted there has exceeded those passing over Cape May, sometimes by a good margin. While I know what leads to a good flight in Cape May (NW winds, 8-15 mph), I have not quite figured out what conditions make for a poor flight in Cape May but a good flight in Cape Henlopen. I imagine wind direction has a lot to do with it, but clouds and humidity are other possible factors.

In other raptor news, I have updated the totals on the raptor banding website. Twenty-seven peregrines last week!

Fifty million years ago, a giant goose-like bird with a toothy bill patrolled the waters covering the modern-day British Isles.

With a five metre wingspan, these huge birds were similar to albatross in their way of life. Albatross have the largest wingspan of any living bird, but that of Dasornis was over a meter and half greater. Despite these similarities, the latest research suggests that the closest living relatives of Dasornis and its fossil kin are ducks and geese.

“Imagine a bird like an ocean-going goose, almost the size of a small plane! By today’s standards these were pretty bizarre animals, but perhaps the strangest thing about them is that they had sharp, tooth-like projections along the cutting edges of the beak” explains Gerald Mayr, expert palaeornithologist at the German Senckenberg Research Institute and author of the report.

Like all living birds Dasornis had a beak made of keratin, the same substance as our hair and fingernails, but it also had these bony ‘pseudo-teeth’ “No living birds have true teeth - which are made of enamel and dentine - because their distant ancestors did away with them more than 100 million years ago, probably to save weight and make flying easier. But the bony-toothed birds, like Dasornis, are unique among birds in that they reinvented tooth-like structures by evolving these bony spikes.”

So why did Dasornis have these pseudo-teeth? “Its linked to diet” says Mayr, “these birds probably skimmed across the surface of the sea, snapping up fish and squid on the wing. With only an ordinary beak these would have been difficult to keep hold of, and the pseudo-teeth evolved to prevent meals slipping away.”

I am not sure what precisely links Dasornis with geese and ducks rather than albatrosses; the article does not explain.

BirdLife has just announced an urban nature reserve in Argentina as an Important Bird Area.

The reserve comprises 350 hectares of lagoons and pampas vegetation and is home to over 300 species of birds. It was founded in 1985 and one million visitors each year enjoy walking its paths and watching the wildlife.

“Urban nature reserves provide an essential link between birds and people. They are the only contact that many people get with the natural world and for cities such as Buenos Aires, this is especially true”, said Andrés Bosso, CEO of Aves Argentinas (BirdLife in Argentina). “Many of these reserves are also designated IBAs for their importance for birds and biodiversity.”

The concentrations of ducks, swans and other waterbirds at the reserve are world-famous. For most birdwatchers visiting Argentina, Costanera Sur is their first taste of the country´s wonderful birdlife.

Important Bird Areas (IBAs) are sites that provide habitat for globally significant numbers of birds, for breeding, migration, or wintering. Urban IBAs are relatively rare, but those that exist are a testament to the remarkable biodiversity that can exist within a city if its natural resources are maintained.

Cape May Point has been subject to 30 mph winds over the past three days, and driving rain for much of yesterday and today. Much of the Point has seemed abnormally quiet in terms of bird activity. Even the common ones that I usually see or hear around the banding sites are staying low. Those birds that did venture out in the open quickly returned to cover or were tossed about by the winds.

In this weather, the only birds that seem unaffected are the peregrine falcons. Where other birds struggle, these birds slice through the wind as if it were nothing. Perhaps that is why these gray and blustery days are so good for finding peregrines here. In my limited time at a blind yesterday morning, we banded three birds, all of which were peregrines.

Colorado's Oil and Gas Commission issued regulations to prevent oil and gas drilling from harming sensitive wildlife habitat at the request of the governor and state legislature.

The rules adopted Tuesday call for drillers to check state maps to determine whether their operations are within sensitive wildlife habitat. If they are, they must consult with the Division of Wildlife on a plan to limit the adverse impact of drilling.

Among the steps an operator could take are consolidating facilities, limiting movement of drilling rigs, using appropriate fencing and conducting vegetative screening.

The rule also identifies "restricted surface occupancy areas" — primarily sage-grouse habitat — where operators should limit drilling to "the maximum extent technically and economically feasible."

This sounds like a step in the right direction, though closure of some sites during lekking season was taken off the table as a mitigation measure. How these will work in practice remains to be seen. It seems that much of the enforcement responsibility lies with the individual companies, which may not be eager to put much effort into protecting wildlife.

The Minnesota Independent recently covered some aspects of Sarah Palin's environmental record, including her opposition to the listing of polar bears under the Endangered Species Act.

More recently, and to great national derision, the state of Alaska filed a suit in federal court challenging the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s designation of polar bears as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act. Issued this past May, the federal polar bear listing drew on a large body of peer-reviewed scientific data demonstrating that Arctic sea ice coverage during the summer months had declined rapidly in recent years. The data also strongly suggested population declines in the South Beaufort Sea — located off Alaska’s North Slope — and the Western Hudson Bay in Canada. Additional studies have observed declining cub survival rates, as well as declining skull size and overall weight for cubs and adult males, all of which strongly suggest that nutritional and other environmental stresses are affecting the polar bear population....

Governor Palin, as promised, rejected the listing, arguing that it had not relied on “the best scientific and commercial data available.” In a New York Times op-ed piece that appeared in January, Palin deceptively wrote that “state biologists are studying the health of polar bear populations and their habitat” — implying that Alaskan biologists disagreed with the science behind the ESA listing. The state of Alaska, in fact, has not employed a polar bear expert for well over three decades. And as Steiner discovered recently through a federal FOIA request, the state’s marine mammal experts in the Department of Fish and Game actually endorsed the science behind the polar bear ruling as well as with nine US Geological Survey studies that provided additional support to the reigning consensus.

Via Nuthatch, I also learned of this op-ed by a University of Alaska professor along similar lines.

Endangered species. Earlier this year, Palin approved a $2 million state appropriation for a conference on the "economic impacts" of the Endangered Species Act, designed to persuade the public that ESA listings were too costly and unwarranted. Recently she agreed to use the money instead to fund the state's lawsuit against the Bush administration over the polar bear listing -- a likely violation of the state constitutional provisions on appropriation. She opposes additional species listings and other protections in Alaska, where many species are at risk because of climate change and other threats....

Pebble mine. Palin aggressively opposed the "clean water initiative" on the August ballot in Alaska (which then failed), favoring instead foreign mining company desires for fewer government regulations controlling their toxic effluent into salmon streams. She has supported virtually any and all mining proposals that have come her way, even likely the enormous Pebble gold and copper mine proposed in the Bristol Bay watershed. That plan put at risk the largest runs of sockeye salmon in the world, where this summer fishermen caught more than 27 million salmon.

To me, the selection of Palin as a running mate undermines McCain's credibility on environmental issues. Prior to his nomination, he had positioned himself as somewhat more likely to take climate change seriously, and he had used his maverick image to imply that he would take a more moderate course and this and other issues than other members of his party. The selection of Palin suggests that his environmental policy would look fairly similar to that of the current administration.

We banded our first peregrines of the season yesterday, at two separate blinds. They are really impressive up close – much larger and more powerful than the kestrels and merlins we have been banding for the past several weeks. This bird was quite large, even for a female peregrine.

Many of the world's bird species are in serious decline.

The report highlights worldwide losses among widespread and once-familiar birds. A staggering 45% of common European birds are declining [1]: the familiar European Turtle-dove Streptopelia turtur, for example, has lost 62% of its population in the last 25 years. On the other side of the globe, resident Australian wading birds have seen population losses of 81% in just quarter of a century [2].

Twenty North American common birds have more than halved in number in the last four decades [3]. Northern Bobwhite Colinus virginianus fell most dramatically, by 82%. In Latin America, the Yellow Cardinal Gubernatrix cristata - once common in Argentina - is now classified as globally Endangered [4].

Millions of White-rumped Vultures Gyps bengalensis recently flew in Asian skies. In just sixteen years populations have crashed by 99.9% - the species is now classified as Critically Endangered [5]. Widespread birds like the Eurasian Eagle Owl are believed to be vanishing from Middle Eastern forests [6]. Seabirds - including Critically Endangered Chatham Albatross Thalassarche eremita - are disappearing from the world’s oceans [7].

While in some cases these declines may simply indicate a problem with a single species, in many cases they signal larger problems with their ecosystems. It could be population crashes among prey species (e.g., due to overfishing), habitat changes (e.g., loss of farmland), or some other problem. So some conservationists suggest that the reductions in many bird populations indicate a wider biodiversity crisis.