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You may have gotten wind of the seven North Dakota oil companies recently charged in federal court with the deaths of 28 migratory birds. The birds allegedly landed in oil waste pits in western North Dakota last spring; the maximum penalty for each charge under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act is six months in prison and a $15,000 fine, the AP said. But did you know that wind-power companies are responsible for more than 400,000 bird deaths annually, and not one has faced a single charge? The Wall Street Journal knows it, opining yesterday that the prosecutions are “bird-brained,” especially...

Robots of a Feather... LIS/Swiss Federal Institute of Technology A rendering of flying robots in Switzerland; connecting lines indicate Wi-Fi links. Relying on algorithms created to render flocks of birds in computer graphics, engineers have created flying robots that travel in swarms.

Does San Francisco have a serious problem with birds flying into tall buildings? Was there a good reason the Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a "bird-safe" building ordinance last month? I asked Supervisors David Chiu and John Avalos on Saturday why they supported the measure, at a mayoral candidates debate hosted by the West of Twin Peaks Central Council. Their answers were instructive. Chiu seemed put out that he had been asked such a trivial question. The board has spent about "40 seconds" on the measure, he assured me, less time than during Saturday's debate. Avalos answered that he knows...

A Story of Love, Compassion, Friendship & Loyalty About eight years ago a wild Australian Sulphur Crested Cockatoo flew into a car and broke its wing. The motorist took it to the Vet in Nerang, Queensland, who had to amputate the wing. We adopted her - for which we needed a National Parks and Wildlife permit - and kept her in a cage outside where she was often visited by wild Cockatoos. One of the things that impressed us was how she would push lettuce leaves through the bars of the cage, offering food to visitors.

On my last trip to the thrift shop there was a mysterious Nauguhyde bag in the show case. Y'all know me, LOL, I just had to look!The Pentax ME Super was made around 1980, it's a compact by SLR standards but built like a brick. This is the SE version, top ot the crop.I got a 50mm f2 Pentax lens and an 80-200 f4,5, all in mint condition, a 2X TC and a bunch of filters, plus a really nice bag.These are with the 80-200 f4.5.I had the film run at Walgreens and scanned the negatives on my Epson 3590.

An enormous jawbone found in Kazakhstan is further evidence that giant birds roamed - or flew above - the Earth at the same time as the dinosaurs. Writing in Biology Letters, researchers say the new species, Samrukia nessovi, had a skull some 30cm long. If flightless, the bird would have been 2-3m tall; if it flew, it may have had a wingspan of 4m. The find is only the second bird of such a size in the Cretaceous geologic period, and the first in Asia. The only other evidence of a bird of such a size during the period was...

Title and link only -- Gannett stationhttp://wusa9.com/news/article/161065/158/Woodpecker-Saving-Daughter-Costs-Mom-500

One of the world's most famous fossil creatures, widely considered the earliest known bird, is getting a rude present on the 150th birthday of its discovery: A new analysis suggests it isn't a bird at all. Chinese scientists are proposing a change to the evolutionary family tree that boots Archaeopteryx off the "bird" branch and onto a closely related branch of birdlike dinosaurs. Archaeopteryx (ahr-kee-AHP'-teh-rihx) was a crow-sized creature that lived about 150 million years ago. It had wings and feathers, but also quite un-birdlike traits like teeth and a bony tail. Discovered in 1861 in Germany, two years after...

According to this Mother Jones article, cats kill birds -- many of which are vital to the ecosystem -- at an alarming rate. Wind tunnels have nothing on Kitty. Also, feral cats are disease-toting menaces -- and their population has tripled over the last four decades. Efforts to staunch the numbers with trap-neuter-return aren't enough. (They do not, however, suck the breath out of new babies. At least give them that.) Seems harsh, yes? I am not a cat lover. In fact, I'm a card-carrying not-cat lover, though I've owned cats -- if you can actually own a cat. I...

A pair of bald eagles nesting near the U.S. Post Office in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, has taken to dive-bombing customers, in one case drawing blood, authorities said on Tuesday.

Dr. Michael Collins, Naval Research Laboratory scientist and bird watcher, has published an article titled "Putative audio recordings of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis)" which appears in the March issue of the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. The audio recordings were captured in two videos of birds with characteristics consistent with the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. This footage was obtained near the Pearl River in Louisiana, where there is a history of unconfirmed reports of this species. During five years of fieldwork, Collins had ten sightings and also heard the characteristic "kent" calls of this species on two occasions. Scientists...

A central Kansas family hopes to learn what caused the deaths of dozens of birds that fell from trees outside their house. Elizabeth Stange says it started with one or two birds tumbling to the ground Thursday afternoon, followed by dozens more. The Sterling woman told KWCH-TV that the birds all died within minutes of each other. By evening, Stange says, she and her family collected about 50 birds from their driveway and yard. Stange says a local veterinarian told her the birds probably ate something poisonous. But a few were sent to Kansas State University for a closer look....

This captioned photo was too good not to share. Anybody want to try for a better caption?

I tied two bells to one of our cats to keep her from going after cats, but she still got one this morning. I rescued the bird, but now he can't really fly. He let me pick him up and put him in, ironically, a cat carrier. So I'm looking for advice. He's resting comfortably now. How soon should I try to feed him? What about water, small cup or big bowl? He's mostly white, with a little bit of grey.

YANKTON, S.D. (KTIV) -- It's happened in places like Louisiana, Arkansas and Kentucky. Hundreds of birds mysteriously found dead. Folks in Yankton, South Dakota, thought they were being added to the list after hundreds of dead birds were found there on Monday. Turns out the unpleasant feathered discovery has a solid explanation. They were poisoned. Some had thought 200 starlings found dead in Yankton's Riverside park had frozen to death. But they were actually poisoned on purpose, by the US Department of Agriculture. Many of the European Starlings discovered by a passerby, were laying on the ground or frozen in...

SANTA ROSA -- Days after massive bird die-offs in the south, Sonoma County officials Tuesday had a mystery of their own as more than 100 bird carcasses were discovered near Geyserville. California Highway Patrol Officer Jon Sloat said the birds were discovered on to Independence Lane at about 2:30 p.m. Saturday. The California Department of Fish and Game was notified and a local warden responded. He took several of the birds away to be identified and tested by a biologist, Sloat told the San Rosa Press Democrat. The birds all appeared to be the same species – small in size...

Large bird kill reported near Geyserville Posted by PD on January 10th, 2011 By RANDI ROSSMANN THE PRESS DEMOCRAT While scientists and specialists are investigating why massive numbers of birds have dropped dead from the sky elsewhere in the country, Sonoma County now has its own bird deaths mystery to solve, reported the CHP. More than 100 birds were found dead Saturday afternoon clustered on the ground off of Highway 101, south of Geyserville, Officer Jon Sloat reported Monday. Officers responded to Independence Lane at about 2:30 p.m. Saturday and found dozens of birds dead on and around the roadway....

It's been said that Mankind will destroy itself. Unfortunately, during the past 100 years the human race has worked hard to make this prediction come true. Nuclear arsenals can destroy Mankind many times over. Alien biological weapons exist that can annihilate all humanity. Toxins are available that are so deadly a few drops in a city's water supply can kill millions. Yet another weapons technology has been under development for some decades.

Witnesses in Italy said thousands of turtle doves fell from the sky, Wednesday, Jan. 5, following a series of incidents in the United States and Sweden. According to residents in the town of Faenza, birds were falling from the sky like “little Christmas balls." The reports are similar to witness accounts from New Year’s Eve when Arkansas partygoers took cover as 4,000 red-winged blackbirds and starlings pinged cars, rooftops and roadways. Unlike birds that died in other areas of the world, the turtle doves were found with a strange blue stain on their beaks. “We have no idea,” a witness...

As we approach the end of time amid a flurry of bloody feathers, fish carcasses, and plentiful crab cakes, Google has, as it always does, given us a means of approaching our imminent demise easily and with style. A new Google Map created yesterday – “Mass Animal Deaths” – shows areas of the world that have experienced a recent wave of animal deaths, complete with a link to an article explaining each instance, as well as the number of animals found dead in each case. From dead snapper in New Zealand to birds exploding over Arkansas, troubling animal deaths are...