Free Republic

Even so, our Creator is still there to remind us—most graphically at dawn and at dusk— that no matter what the news of the day, God is in His heaven. No ‘News’ on the Internet can possibly compete with the largely overlooked ‘Real News’ that begins and ends each and every day. Whether or not we’re up early enough, or too busy to notice, the birdsong of ‘God’s Orchestra’ announces each breaking dawn. Sometimes it begins with the chirp of just one or two little birds, calling out to other feathered friends before the full chorus joins in. It’s almost...

Fort Worth police broke up a cockfighting event that ended in the arrests of three men, and 130 birds confiscated, but many had to be euthanized. Officers were called to a home in the 4300 block of Windowmere Street just after 11 a.m. Sunday. Police said 95 cocks, 17 hens and 18 chicks were seized. Seventeen recently-dead cocks were also found on the property. "We humanely euthanized 90 roosters, all who were in some state of suffering," Diane Covey with the Fort Worth Animal Shelter said via email. "Some of the roosters were still wearing gaffs, they were bleeding from...

Deer aren’t the slim, graceful vegans we thought they were. Scientists using field cameras have caught deer preying on nestling song birds. And it’s not just deer. Herbivores the world over may be supplementing their diets. When researchers in North Dakota set up “nest cams” over the nests of song birds, they expected to see a lot of nestlings and eggs get taken by ground squirrels, foxes, and badgers. Squirrels hit thirteen nests, but other meat-eaters made a poor showing. Foxes and weasels only took one nest each. Know what fearsome animal out-did either of those two sleek, resourceful predators?...

The minefields laid in the Falkland Islands were intended to kill or maim British soldiers, but over the last 35 years they have become de facto nature reserves for penguins. For better or worse, however, the time has now come for their home to be demined, reports Matthew Teller.{snip}Fortunately, the landmines aren't a problem for the penguins - at least, not the little Magellanics and Gentoos of Yorke Bay. "They don't seem to be heavy enough to set them off," says Esther Bertram, chief executive officer of Falklands Conservation.

Video...Comic relief. Public service announcement: the border wall is even more problematic because animals and birds might be impacted. I wish I was kidding, but MSNBC ran a segment with biologist Jeff Corwin, where the latter said jaguars, the Mexican gray wolf, bats, and some birds might be impacted by the border wall’s construction. VIDEO “It would be an unprecedented environmental catastrophe,” said Corwin to host Craig Melvin. Melvin began the segments discussing Rep. Raul Graijalva (D-AZ) and the Center for Biological Diversity’s lawsuit against the federal government over the border enforcement project. In California, the state legislature is considering...

It’s a discovery that's straight out of “Jurassic Park.” Scientists have found a tiny section of a dinosaur’s tail trapped in amber, and not only that, it has feathers. Dating to about 99 million years ago, or the mid-Cretaceous period, the amber containing the eight dinosaur vertebrae originally came from Myanmar. While scientists have known since 1996 that some non-avian dinosaurs had feathers, and even suspected that fact 10 years before that, this new find can teach them more about how feathers have evolved over millions of years. The feathered tail in question came from a juvenile dinosaur, likely a...

VOne of the largest colonies of gentoo penguins in Antarctica was decimated by volcanic eruptions several times during the last 7,000 years according to a new study. An international team of researchers, led by British Antarctic Survey (BAS), studied ancient penguin guano and found the colony came close to extinction several times due to ash fall from the nearby Deception Island volcano. Their results are published today (Tuesday 11 April) in Nature Communications. Ardley Island, near the Antarctic Peninsula, is currently home to a population of around 5,000 pairs of gentoo penguins. Using new chemical analyses of penguin guano extracted...

A few recent shots from around home. If you have bird shots, please share 'em. Mr Tricolor enjoys his breakfast. Common gallinule or marsh hen Our national bird. Love these amazing raptors Coots in the sunrise. Lake Jackson is just a block east of us. I have to look at this each morning as I leave home for work.

Jim Sharpsteen started around sunrise. He was among half-dozen or so bird-loving volunteers who, over an 11-week span beginning last August, made the walk of shame around U.S. Bank Stadium. Their mission was to confirm the worst: To see if the stadium, with its 200,000 square feet of clear and reflective glass, is so indistinguishable to birds that the creatures crash into it like something out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie. Welcome to the avian killing fields.

Born Free USA emphasizes the importance of National Bird Day and lists it as a day to shine a spotlight on issues critical to the protection and survival of birds, both captive and wild. According to Born Free USA, nearly 12 percent of the world’s almost 10,000 bird species are in danger of extinction. Join over half a million avian admirers celebrate National Bird Day through a bevy of activities. •bird-watching •studying birds •educating others •other bird-related activities •A particularly important National Bird Day activity is bird adoption. According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper article, many bird enthusiasts celebrate...

It was sunny and warm in Florida today. High was 86. Got a little camera and nature time today too. Hope you enjoy. Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and an awesome New Year. I believe 2017 is gonna a great start to the Trump revolution to restore America! - - - Anhinga on a pier sunning his feathers. Great egret in the swamp (Highlands Hammock State Park) Red shouldered hawk looking for mice.

How about a little sanity break from the politics and mayhem? Blue jay Crested caracara Cormorants hanging out at the pier

Fears are growing for a huge flock of birds which are believed to be trapped inside the eye of Hurricane Matthew. Pointing to a small green dot on a radar picture of the hurricane, Glenn Burns, a weather forecaster with Atlanta-based WSB-TV, said: 'We are actually seeing something very unusual.

Some say that the casualty numbers are overhyped. Other say it is a serious problem. But at the Ivanpah Solar Plant in Nevada, birds are bursting into flames. The bizarre occurrences happen when the bird’s flight paths take them into the ultra-concentrated beams of sunlight produced by the panels at the plant. On spec, the plant seems like the very ideal of energy production for the future: three gleaming towers, forty stories in height capturing the energy from the sunlight reflected by five acres of massive mirrors. All told, the plant generates some 390 megawatts of power from its turbines....

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is quite serious about flying safety. If an aircraft crashes, the FAA will conduct an investigation called a Root Cause Analysis. This involves methodical detective work that tracks events from the moment of the crash back in time. Flight and voice data recorders are invaluable to the inquiry. Root Cause Analysis identifies the most obvious problem that led to the crash and then lists the problem’s cause. That cause is then treated like a problem in itself, and the cause for its occurrence is investigated. This cycle is repeated until the very first cause is...

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It's been 2 1/2 months since the last birdy thread was posted. Florida is a bit too hot for this old man to get out and shoot much in high summer. However, today I had a visitor. A little blue heron was feeding on my front lawn. That seemed a tad unusual. There was also a flock of white ibis. This time of year the ibis begin to gather in larger and larger flocks preparing for their winter migration. I got a face shot of this youngster. Their eyes are cool Several weeks ago I saw a family of Florida...

Last week, RSPB Scotland and the Scottish Moorland Group, whose members include landowners and gamekeepers, clashed over the loss of the eight golden eagles between 2011 and July this year. The wildlife charity believes they were killed illegally around grouse moors, and their satellite tracking tags destroyed. The transmitters being fitted to these birds are exceedingly reliable, and illegal persecution is therefore the most likely explanation of the disappearance of these birds of prey.

This odd habit by our feathered friends has long been theorized, but now German scientists say they have definitive proof for the first time ever. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute in Seewiesen, Bavaria, announced on Wednesday that they had proved for the first time that birds can fly while sleeping and still stay aloft. The researchers were able to monitor the brainwaves and movements of great frigate birds from the Galapagos Islands, whose airborne journeys may last for months. They strapped devices to the heads of female birds to measure brain activity over the course of ten days. […]...

New Zealand is a nation that takes its birds seriously, and it’s got very special ones. The country’s currency is adorned with images of winged species found nowhere else, including the yellow-eyed penguin and the black-masked kokako. The logo of the national air force is stamped with the famed kiwi — a chicken-sized puff of feathers that cannot fly.... “For the first time, technology is starting to make feasible what previously seemed like an unattainable dream,” ... In 2013, environmental activist Gareth Morgan suggested hunting down and killing every feral cat in New Zealand (a proposal that, Morgan told The...