Last July, novelist and bird-watcher Jonathan Franzen wrote a devastating account for National Geographic magazine about the mass slaughter of migrating birds across the Mediterranean. The situation, he wrote, was especially dire in Albania, which lies along a major migratory flyway. Due to indiscriminate hunting, the skies above Albania were literally being emptied of birds. […]
Category: Wildlife
Red-breasted Merganser Dives
February is a good month to look for red-breasted merganser ducks in New York City’s East River. Today I saw the one in these two photos. I wrote about another on a February Sunday in 2011. The red-breasted merganser is a diving duck; it mainly eats fish, which it dives under water to catch. Below […]
How “insect soup” might change the face of conservation
Much of what we know about patterns of biodiversity has come from extensive fieldwork, with expert researchers sampling and identifying species in a process that takes thousands of man-hours. But new technologies may revolutionize this process, allowing us to monitor changes in biodiversity at speeds and scales unimaginable just a decade ago. A new paper […]
POLL: Should there be stricter controls on rat poisons?
Barn Owls, a majestic icon of the British countryside, are dying off in their thousands. A changing climate and habitat loss is part of the picture, but Britain’s Barn Owls are also being killed by powerful rat poisons used on farms across the country. When owls eat poisoned rodents, they ingest deadly toxins which cause […]
Slaughterhouse Said to Process “Horrifying” Number of Whale Sharks Annually
Whale sharks are being slaughtered: That’s the shocking news from a report issued by WildLifeRisk, a nongovernmental organization. A three-year investigation provides evidence that a factory in southeastern China is cutting up about 600 of the 21-ton (19-tonne) fish a year. It’s illegal—whale sharks are a protected species under Chinese and international law. But it’s […]
Endangered: Peruvian Plantcutter (Phytotoma raimondii) VIDEO
By: Michael Tweddle As a nature lover and wildlife photographer it is always a pleasure to be part in research and conservation activities. Here an example of two livelong friends’ researchers, Monica Romo and Mario Rosina and their hours of commitment studying and protecting the endemic Peruvian Plantcutter. The Peruvian Plantcutter (Phytotoma raimondii), is endemic […]
POLL: Should shooting clubs be allowed to shoot endangered birds?
Welsh populations of golden plover have declined by 80% in 30 years yet the British Association for Shooting and Conservation has them in its sights. Tide ebbs from Traeth Bach. The estuary gathers light, resolves into a pattern of interlocking curves, gleaming channels, draining sand. I walked this place daily years ago, far out by […]
Picaflor de barbijo, Blue-tufted Starthroat, Heliomaster furcifer
Después de casi un mes puedo disfrutar nuevamente en mi casa de abundante actividad de los picaflores, creo que las elevadas temperaturas que tuvimos que soportar durante el último mes de Enero influyeron para que estas aves disminuyan su presencia; hoy por suerte apareció también la hembra del Picaflor de barbijo, y la fotografié en […]