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Necessity has become the mother of invention for certain birds of prey looking for a place to lay their eggs and raise their young as their natural habitats are lost to development. Local ospreys, for instance, are getting creative about selecting nesting sites in the wild ... or not-so-wild sites in the area. Pairs of ospreys, one of North America's largest birds of prey with a wing span of up to six feet, are currently building nests in densely developed sites in the region. One of the couples is weaving branches together atop a utility pole along busy Post Road...

An elderly woman violated her probation by leaving bread crumbs out in her yard for crows and will remain behind bars. Eighty-one-year-old Mary Musselman was first arrested last month for feeding bears in her backyard. One of the bears was euthanized over it because the Fish and Wildlife Service said the bears might learn not to be afraid of people anymore and then get aggressive. The judge in the case warned Musselman not to feed any more wild animals of any kind: A judge gave her probation at the time, and made it clear: Do it again, and go to...

The UK’s renewable energy plans have been set back after the companies building the world’s biggest offshore wind farm, London Array, ditched a second phase of the huge project, largely because of uncertainties about its impact on birds. **SNIP** Basking sharks and a rocky seabed helped kill off plans to build ScottishPower Renewables’ Argyll Array wind farm off the western coast of Scotland in December. That move came just weeks after RWE, a German power company, pulled the plug on its £4bn Atlantic Array offshore wind farm after saying the cost of overcoming technical challenges were “prohibitive” in the current...

This is what the world's largest solar plant looks like when it's catching rays By Jacob Kastrenakes on February 13, 2014 01:44 pm Email @jake_k 172Comments  59inShare     A massive solar plant in the Mojave Desert officially began operation today after years of construction, testing, and development. Co-owned by NRG Energy, BrightSource Energy, and Google, the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System is said to be ready to generate nearly 30 percent of all solar thermal energy produced in the United States. The plant consists of three 459-foot tall towers each with tens of thousands of robotic, garage-door sized mirrors that...

This Is Really Amazing: Crow Solves An 8-Step Puzzle To Get Food!

TYBEE ISLAND, Georgia — Endangered piping plovers blend into the background of sandy beaches like Tybee's, where these small shorebirds are known to visit. First decimated by the use of their feathers in women's hats in the late 1800s, plovers have since suffered from having to compete with humans for beach space. Now only 60 or so breeding pairs remain in the smallest of their three known populations. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has identified global warming and wind turbines as emerging threats to these birds.

This is well outside California, but it may well have ramifications in the Golden State: A lawsuit threatened by a pair of bird conservation groups has halted a wind power development the federal government had planned along the Lake Erie shore in Ohio. **SNIP** "We are absolutely elated that the Air National Guard has halted this project, at least temporarily and possibly for good," said BSBO Executive Director Kimberly Kaufman, adding that BSBO would continue to gather petition signatures despite the ANG's decision. "We want to document the full extent of the opposition to this -- and similar projects in...

A U.S. military project to erect a 131-foot-tall wind turbine with rotor blades 135 feet in diameter in what a conservation group calls “one of the greatest bird migration corridors in the Western Hemisphere” has been abruptly halted. The decision to stop work on a 600-kilowatt turbine at Camp Perry along Lake Erie was revealed in a letter [PDF] from the National Guard Bureau (the entity that runs the National Guard) to the attorneys representing the American Bird Conservancy and Black Swamp Bird Observatory, who earlier this month had threatened a lawsuit if the project proceeded. **SNIP** “The victory sends...

We have about a foot of snow on the ground here at Valley Forge. Birds have been very active at our feeder. We're using Cherry-Scented Dark Oil Sunflower Seeds - no squirrels!! This morning, about 6*F, we had lots of Cardinals plus the usual assortment of Juncos, Sparrows, Black-Capped Chickadees, Purple Finches, and Blue Jays. I did a double take this afternoon as I saw a Carolina Wren - the eyebrow and beak were unmistakeable - for the first time ever. We had a Northern Flicker a few weeks back but he hasn't returned. Just wondering what you've had at...

How are birds in your area dealing with the cold weather? Any sightings or interesting stories worth sharing here? There are reports of Arctic birds coming down into North America, including parts of the United States during this 'polar vortex'.. Any sightings? Some birds flee the cold areas for warmer climates, and some stay and endure it by hiding in sheltered areas such as hollow or thick trees in groups. If you have the means to set food out for birds, finding food is more of a problem for them during cold temperatures than enduring the temperature is.

California's newest wind turbines may be killing more than 100,000 birds a year, according to a peer-reviewed study to be published in December. Those mortalities seem to climb the taller wind turbines get. And California wind turbines kill more wildlife per megawatt than identical turbines in other parts of the country. ... The study, conducted by Scott R. Loss and Peter P. Marra from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute's Migratory Bird Center and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Tom Will, appears in the December 2013 issue of the journal Biological Conservation. The study was based on a survey of...

Two months ago, 34 birds were found dead or injured on the site of the Ivanpah solar plant owned by BrightSource Energy in east San Bernardino County, California. Almost half suffered from singed feathers after running afoul of the plant’s reflected beams of sunlight, according to a report from The Desert Sun. This was not an isolated incident: another 19 were found dead at the 500-megawatt Desert Sunlight plant, which is also located in California. So what’s going on here? Why are birds dropping like their winged-brethren, flies, around these plants and what can we do? The Californian desert has...

CAIRO (AP) — In a case that ruffled feathers in Egypt, authorities have detained a migratory bird that a citizen suspected of being a spy. A man in Egypt's Qena governorate, some 450 kilometers (280 miles) southeast of Cairo, found the suspicious bird among four others near his home and brought them to a police station Friday, said Mohammed Kamal, the head of the security in the region. There, officers and the man puzzled over the electronic device attached to the suspected winged infiltrator. On Saturday, a veterinary committee called by concerned government officials determined the device was neither a...

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Zombie Pigeons Invade Moscow MOSCOW–This summer, zombie birds have come to Russia’s capital. In what some might compare to a horror film–or even a sign of the apocalypse–the streets of Moscow have been littered with dead and sick pigeons in the past week. Videos posted on the Internet show pigeons twisting their necks, walking backward in circles or standing completely still with their heads on the ground. Muscovites are calling them “zombie pigeons.” Corpses of those that don’t survive have been spotted across the city. Russia’s chief sanitary official, Gennady Onishchenko, said Friday that veterinarians had concluded the pigeons were...

SCOTLAND -- 80 birdwatchers got together in Scotland to get a glimpse of a White-throated Needletail: a rare bird that has not been seen in the United Kingdom for 22 years. The birders were there to watch the world's fastest flying bird, instead they witnessed it fly directly into a wind turbine where it was killed instantly. According to Bird Guides' Josh Jones: "It was seen by birders fly straight into the turbine."

More Federal studies and grants are needed and we can't wait. Editor's note: This is a guest post by the Very Honorable Ima Librul, Senator from the great State of Confusion Utopia. He recently explained some of his difficulties in growing pineapples and focuses here on other major problems and opportunities facing modern American society. We are privileged to have a post of this caliber by a quintessential Librul such as the Senator. He is a charter member of President Obama’s Go For It Team, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Chairman of the Meretricious Relations Subcommittee. He is also...

Wind farms in this corner of Wyoming have killed more than four dozen golden eagles since 2009, one of the deadliest places in the country of its kind. But so far, the companies operating industrial-sized turbines here and elsewhere that are killing eagles and other protected birds have yet to be fined or prosecuted - even though every death is a criminal violation. The Obama administration has charged oil companies for drowning birds in their waste pits, and power companies for electrocuting birds on power lines. But the administration has never fined or prosecuted a wind-energy company, even those that...

Arab terrorists who in the past served terms in Israeli prisons warned prisoners currently being held for terrorism to watch out for a group of undercover informers seeking to trip them up, who are known as “birds.” The network apparently stretches far and wide, with these "birds" tasked with wheedling out confessions that lead to convictions through a mixture of charm, camaraderie and favors. The “birds” usually pose as terrorists themselves, the Arabs said, as reported by AFP. Ahmed Azzam, 30, says his first exposure to the "birds" was after several unsuccessful Israeli attempts at interrogating him. “When I was...

Major Didier Pericou told The Times of Europe, "When we first went out in the helicopter looking for the body, we saw numerous vultures without realizing what they were doing." Pericou added that the incident has reignited calls from local farmers to allow hunting of the birds. The Times reported that Pyrénéan farmers have been demanding the right to shoot the birds, known as Griffon Vultures, because they've been attacking sheep and cows. But the species is protected in France and has lost access to its normal diet of carcasses due to European health and safety regulations.