First, let’s start with the good:

Scientific testing of drones near birding hotspot Cape May, NJ has been postponed to avoid messing with Red Knots and Piping Plovers (like the cutie above that Corey photographed there a few years back).

(On the flip side, drones disguised as raptors might be able to keep birds from colliding with planes and wind turbines.)

If you love penguins, and you love Doctor Who, you won’t want to miss this David Tennant–narrated miniseries on PBS.

(Penguins are also being touted as a way to gauge the health of oceans.)

Still craving more penguin news? Sea World San Diego just welcomed the world’s first “test-tube” penguin.

Can prairie grass curb bird strikes? Dayton International Airport in Ohio aims to find out.

 

The bad:

Well, this one’s bad news if you’re a bird-mauling cat in England.

Friends don’t let Ospreys build nests with fishing lines or baling twine.

Uh-oh! According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the bugs that cause House Finch Eye Disease have shown up in other species of birds.

“Angel wing syndrome” is yet another reason not to toss your breadcrumbs to those geese in the park.

 

And the odd:

If you’re in Silver City, NM, stop in for a dish of Yellow-billed Cuckoo Gelato at Alotta Gelato, which just won the “Birds Mean Business” award from local Audubon and conservation groups.

They may not be smarter than a 5th grader, but New Caledonian Crows can outwit kindergartners.

Humans won the evolutionary race in the long run, but Neanderthals seem to have pioneered the use of birds as a food source.

Climate change is generally not a good thing, but this summer it appears to have brought some rarities to the UK.

Need a decoy so you can study Olive-sided Flycatchers? 3-D printing has you covered.

And last but not least, just when you think you’ve heard of all the ways to get rid of “nuisance” birds … spray their roosts with grape flavor?

Written by Meredith Mann
The lowly Red-winged Blackbirds in suburban New York triggered Meredith Mann's interest in birds. Five years later, she's explored some of the the USA's coolest hotspots, from Plum Island in Massachusetts to the Magic Hedge in Chicago to the deserts of Fallon, Nevada. She recently migrated from the Windy City (where she proudly served as a Chicago Bird Collision Monitor, rescuing migrants from skyscrapers and sidewalks) to Philadelphia, where she plans to find new editing and writing gigs; keep up her cool-finds chronicle, Blog5B; and discover which cheesesteak really is the best. And she will accept any and all invitations to bird Cape May, NJ.