Rather splendidly a rare mining bee, Andrena marginata, could help thwart plans to build nearly 200 homes in part of Scotland’s magnificent Cairngorms National Park. There shouldn’t be plans to build homes in the ecologically-rich Cairngorms NP in the first place, but if a mining bee can halt Muir Homes in their clodhopping tracks maybe it’s time all us birders broadened our interests a little…

So, yes, there is a controversy about climate change.  Are deniers in it for the money or because they hate the planet?  Or both?  Check out this list of organizations that think climate change is a fact and those that don’t and try to figure out the motivation behind the deniers…

In an unfortunate decision, the Department of the Interior did not designate the Greater Sage Grouse an endangered species, though the bird’s status will be reviewed yearly, because scientists at the United States Fish and Wildlife Service had determined that the bird is endangered, but not as endangered as other species, meaning that the grouse would be categorized as “warranted but precluded.”

Despite the fact that the bird did not get listed as an endangered species, one gibbering idiot, Republican representative Rob Bishop of Utah, was not happy: “Today’s unnecessary federal designation is one more on a growing list of examples that this administration places environmental special interests before job creation.”

Even he wasn’t as big a jerk as another Republican representative from Utah, Jason Chaffetz, “The only good place for a sage grouse to be listed is on the menu of a French bistro,” he said recently. “It does not deserve federal protection, period.”

Lillian Stokes has some great pictures of birds catching fish at Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Stokes Birding Blog today.  Enjoy!