To survive the Arctic's frigid temperatures, animals must use their energy efficiently. According to a new study, one Arctic bird species, the Svalbard rock ptarmigan, utilizes a previously unknown energy-saving method.

Researchers studying yellow warbler responses to the parasitic cowbird realized that red-winged blackbirds were eavesdropping on the calls and reacting to them, too.

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

OBJECTIVE

Previous studies suggested that childhood prediabetes may develop prior to obesity and be associated with relative insulin deficiency. We proposed that the insulin-deficient phenotype is genetically determined and tested this hypothesis by longitudinal modeling of insulin and glucose traits with diabetes risk genotypes in the EarlyBird cohort.

The play made me ask the terrifying question that every educator asks themselves at some point: Am I actually helping my students?

Gould, Elizabeth, 1804-1841 -- Fiction.

Gould, John, 1804-1881. Monograph of the Trochilidae, or family of humming-birds.

Civilization, Classical.

Huntington's disease -- Patients -- Care.

Lee, Harper, 1926-

Alex Diana, Eleni Matechou, Jim Griffin, Alison Johnston.

Source: The Annals of Applied Statistics, Volume 14, Number 1, 473--493.

Abstract:
Environmental changes in recent years have been linked to phenological shifts which in turn are linked to the survival of species. The work in this paper is motivated by capture-recapture data on blackcaps collected by the British Trust for Ornithology as part of the Constant Effort Sites monitoring scheme. Blackcaps overwinter abroad and migrate to the UK annually for breeding purposes. We propose a novel Bayesian nonparametric approach for expressing the bivariate density of individual arrival and departure times at different sites across a number of years as a mixture model. The new model combines the ideas of the hierarchical and the dependent Dirichlet process, allowing the estimation of site-specific weights and year-specific mixture locations, which are modelled as functions of environmental covariates using a multivariate extension of the Gaussian process. The proposed modelling framework is extremely general and can be used in any context where multivariate density estimation is performed jointly across different groups and in the presence of a continuous covariate.

Remarkable fossil hints at the traits birds evolved just before an asteroid wiped their nonavian dinosaur kin

After saving these two hummingbird chicks when they were just a day old when the branch their nest was on broke during a storm (I replaced it and attached it to its original tree), I had the honor of watching them and their mom as the chicks grew to fledglings and then flew away. This picture was a few days before they actually left the nest. The dark stucco of my house provided a perfect backdrop to their activities.

As Nova Scotians gazed up at the Canadian Forces Snowbirds soaring through the clouds last weekend, Matt MacKenzie was looking down and feeling the weight of successive tragedies that had enveloped his home province. 

When Antje Springman spotted something huddled outside her home, she thought it was one of her chickens. It turned out to be a Great Cormorant.

Poor visibility from winter-like weather has put a halt on the Snowbirds aerobatics team's plans to fly over southern Ontario on Saturday.

A FROSTY morning and the sun is yet to rise sluggishly over the horizon. Outside, though, already snippets of chirping bird song ring out from the pitch blackness. In my mind’s eye, I imagine little groups huddled high among the branches of the trees. Waiting and watching.

Police have charged a man after a spate of poisonings killed birds of prey over a two-year period.

It is a tiny spit of land that lies in the Firth of Clyde two miles off the coast of Troon where colonies of seabirds have made their homes for centuries.

IT is one of he most important seabird observatories in the world, but its very future was called into question when fire ravaged through it and left it no more than a pile of rubble.

The first 20 minutes of a business owner's work day may determine the success or failure of the business, says a franchise expert

State officials hope a new addition at the Blackbird Forest Education Center in Townsend will become a "hive of activity" as its occupants get "busy as bees" teaching visitors about the natural environment, the valuable role bees play in crop pollination and honey production, and how forests and flowering tree species can contribute to bee health and well-being. “Trees for Bees” is the theme of the 10th “National Pollinator Week” (June 20-26, 2016). The 2016 theme highlights the many natural benefits that flowering native tree species such as tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera), black willow (Salix nigra), northern catalpa (Catalpa speciosa), flowering dogwood (Cornus florida), and maples (Acer spp.) can offer to foraging bees.

Volunteers of all ages are needed this month to help plant 8,800 hardwood seedlings along the Cypress Branch at Blackbird State Forest to enhance the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. The planting will take place on Saturday, March 17, and Sunday, March 18, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day at Blackbird State Forest’s Naudain Tract, 2076 Harvey Straughn Road, Townsend, Delaware 19734. The weekend tree planting is a “rain or shine” event. Equipment, including shovels, will be provided. Volunteers are encouraged to dress appropriately for the weather and wear boots or other work shoes. Snacks will be provided and commemorative T-shirts and patches will be given to both youth and adult volunteers on a first-come, first-served basis. The project is a cooperative partnership between the Delaware Forest Service, the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) Division of Watershed Stewardship, and the Girl Scouts of the USA.

Volunteers are needed to plant 2,000 hardwood seedlings at Blackbird State Forest on Saturday and Sunday, April 13 and 14, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day. Two seniors from Middletown High School, Bryan Alberding and Nick Kupsick, are leading the project in cooperation with the Delaware Forest Service and the DNREC Nonpoint Source Program (NPS), which is funding the trees. The project will take place on Blackbird State Forest's Naudain Tract, 2076 Harvey Straughn Road, Townsend, Delaware 19734. The rain date is April 27 and 28, 2019.

The Delaware Forest Service will host its "23rd Annual Fire Camp" event at Blackbird State Forest (502 Blackbird Forest Road, Smyrna DE 19977) on Saturday, March 30 from 6:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The intensive one-day seminar is the capstone of the agency’s wildfire training program to certify its emergency firefighters to meet National Wildfire Coordinating Group standards. State forest visitors should be advised that trail closures and other restrictions will be in effect for the event.

The DNREC Mosquito Control Section, in conjunction with the Division of Public Health and Department of Agriculture, has announced the first detection this year of West Nile virus in wild birds, indicating the recurrence of this mosquito-borne disease in Delaware.

Townsend --

Location: Blackbird Forest Road between Blackbird Station Road and US 13, near Townsend.

Times and Dates: 7:00 a.m. on April 15, 2020 until 3:00 p.m. on April 22, 2020, pending weather.

Traffic Information: DelDOT announces to motorists that Blackbird Forest Road will be closed for the removal and replacement of a crossroad pipe for drainage improvements. [More]

DNERR’s Tree Swallows and Bluebirds Need YOU Spring is here, and the St. Jones and Blackbird Creek Reserves have sprouted a number of mysterious, wooden boxes affixed to PVC poles. Where did these boxes come from? And why? With such questions in mind, this writer approached Christina Whiteman, DNERR’s Environmental Scientist and Stewardship Coordinator, and […]

The post DNERR’s Tree Swallows and Bluebirds Need YOU appeared first on DNERR Blog - State of Delaware.

Slackware Security Advisory - New mozilla-thunderbird packages are available for Slackware 14.2 and -current to fix security issues.

Slackware Security Advisory - New mozilla-thunderbird packages are available for Slackware 14.2 and -current to fix security issues.

Slackware Security Advisory - New mozilla-thunderbird packages are available for Slackware 14.2 and -current to fix security issues.

Slackware Security Advisory - New mozilla-thunderbird packages are available for Slackware 14.2 and -current to fix security issues.

Slackware Security Advisory - New mozilla-thunderbird packages are available for Slackware 14.2 and -current to fix security issues.

It may be safe for a bird to land on a wire, but not on two of them at once.

FALMOUTH, Maine (AP) — The coronavirus pandemic has canceled dozens of spring traditions, from college basketball’s Final Four to Easter Sunday services, but there’s one rite that’s going on largely unfettered — turkey hunting. Every state except Alaska, which is the only state with no turkeys, hosts a spring turkey hunt each year. The birds, whose domesticated cousins grace Thanksgiving tables from Hawaii to Maine, are among America’s greatest conservation success stories. The hunt is taking on a new look in some parts of the country this year due to social distancing laws. Many states, including Maine, are requiring out-of-state residents to self quarantine for two...

At around 11am on a Saturday, Luke Okomo arrives at Dunga Beach, on the outskirts of Kenya’s Kisumu City, and heads straight to what is known as the ‘Dunga Papyrus Boardwalk’. He pays Sh200 ($2), the daily fee for local tourists and students, and then joins a group of five visitors already taking a tour […]

The post The Boardwalk For Birds: Protecting Lake Victoria’s Dunga Beach Wetland appeared first on Inter Press Service.

One of the most hopeless aspects of unrepentant sinners’ lives is that they have no answer for anxiety. They’re forced to put their hopes in flimsy, fallible plans and institutions. They aren’t able to rest firmly in the unchanging promises of God—they have to ride out every wave of calamity, every unexpected disaster.

Prague Daily Monitor

A second case of bird flu was discovered in Pardubice area at a commercial chicken farm, the spokesperson for the Minister of Agriculture Vojtěch Bílý communicated the news to ČTK. The first case in three years was discovered this year in January at a farm in small farm in the Žďár area. The Ministry is still analyzing the situation and will hold a press conference which will include the Minister of Agriculture and the Director of the Czech Veterinary Office.

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Five species of songbird and five subspecies have been discovered by scientists for the first time in mountainous areas of Indonesia

Blue tits and great tits don’t need to taste unpleasant foods to avoid them – they can learn not to try them by seeing another bird’s disgusted response, even if it’s only on video

A new species of dinosaur has been named from a skull measuring only 1.4 centimetres across. The dinosaur was smaller than any living bird today

A 99-million-year-old skull recently discovered in amber might actually belong to a lizard, rather than a tiny bird-like dinosaur as first thought

West Africa's waters are a hotspot for illegal fishing, says conservationist Justine Dossa. She is working to change fishing practices and tackle pollution