mountaintop removal coal mining and bird conservation

Mountaintop removal coal mining is a practice that much evidence suggests is damaging to ecosystems, destroys bird and wildlife habitat and negatively impacts human communities. Learn more about it at this website.

American Bird Conservancy News

News from the American Bird Conservancy is available at this link.

latest BirdLife International news

See the latest news from BirdLife International at this link.

my vote for best field guide of 2010

Since many new field guides are published each year, it's not easy for one to rise above the pack. But this book - Birds of the Middle East, Second Edition - by Richard Porter and Simon Aspinall (Princeton University Press) is the obvious choice for "first place" for me.

The reasons? The artwork is spectacularly good. Images of many plumages are included. The authors have expanded their coverage of species by 1oo over those found in the first edition - there are now more than 800. There are more species accounts and more than 820 maps. Maps are on the facing page, which is still not true for all field guides. The book is still really "field guide-size" - making it easier to actually use in the field.

For those heading to the Middle East, this book should make birding easier for you. And I pick it up every few days just to look at some of the plates, (owls, for example...and large falcons...and the many Middle Eastern wheatear species!)

widespread decline in North American bumble bees

Worrisome news about bumblebee declines:

"the relative abundances of four species have declined by up to 96% and that their surveyed geographic ranges have contracted by 23–87%"

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2011/01/03/1014743108

bird conservation reminder for the new year

Go to this link at the Saving Our Shared Birds website for a timely reminder. Please get involved in any way you can in 2011.

bison and Yellowstone

Each year, America's wild bison face hazing and slaughter as they leave the safety of Yellowstone National Park -- one of the last havens they have left.

I hope you will join me to stop this out-dated and terrible policy.

Please take action at this link.

Thanks