For most of the month of April spring migration was moving along gradually as swallows, phoebes, and early warblers started to arrive. While others like Dark-eyed Juncos began heading north. Saturday was a sunny day so I got an early start by checking the area surrounding our local reservoir. The […]
POLL: Should the trade of polar bear parts be banned?
The US government has quietly dropped its campaign for an international ban in the trade of polar bear parts, which would have given the practice the same outlaw status as the elephant ivory market. The US Fish and Wildlife Service has spent several years attempting to ban the overseas trade of polar bear skins, teeth, […]
Pennington Marsh – 30th April and 2nd May
May Bank Holiday weekend and not much planned, apart from a family event on Sunday so Saturday and Monday were free, fantastic! Sarah needed some home time so I used the mornings of Saturday and Monday for some birding although I was aware that I needed to not push my luck and stay out too […]
POLL: Should there be a moratorium on turtle dove hunting in Malta?
Malta should consider a temporary ban on the shooting of turtle doves which are being driven to extinction by hunting and other pressures, the EU’s environment chief has said. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) put turtledoves on its Red List of species threatened with extinction for the first time last October. […]
Frozen Worlds
A Polar Bear (Ursus maritimas) proclaims his dominance above the frozen world around him. Somewhere above the Arctic Circle. With Journeys Unforgettable Photographic Safaris.
POLL: Should bear-bile farming be banned?
The bear bile industry targets mostly sun bears and Asiatic black bears, also known as moon bears, which both get their names from the tuft of white hair on their chests. The bears’ gallbladders contain a yellow liquid—bile—that helps them digest fat. People have used this bile in Asian medicine for more than a thousand […]
Arabian Green Bee-eater
The Arabian Green Bee-eater is usually treated as conspecific with M. viridissimus and M. orientalis, but differs from both in its very short stub-ended central tail feathers; bright blue forehead, supercilium and throat, and bluer lower belly; broader, smudgier black breast-bar; marginally larger size and clearly longer tail (minus the tail extensions) than the other […]
POLL: Would you drink coffee made with animal poop?
It’s the world’s most expensive coffee, and it’s made from poop. Or rather, it’s made from coffee beans that are partially digested and then pooped out by the civet, a catlike creature. A cup of kopi luwak, as it’s known, can sell for as much as $80 in the United States. Found in Southeast Asia […]