More migration (and other) news, on the wing …

As Redgannet can probably attest, Blackcaps seem to be bypassing their traditional Spanish wintering grounds in favor of the UK, possibly because of backyard bird feeders.

On the other hand, some folks in Australia are going all out to discourage those who toss bread to waterfowl.

Using feathers, the Bird Genoscape Project is hoping to pinpoint migration routes and thereby stave off environmental issues that could lead to bird population declines.

A study of Burrowing Owls in an Argentinian city finds that the urban birds seem to fare better than their rural cousins. (Burrowing Owls in a smaller U.S. city photographed by Nate, above.)

Was the U.S. government’s decision not to declare the Greater Sage Grouse “endangered” a good thing or a bad thing? It depends on who you ask.

In related news, a rule forbidding nighttime high school football games during the nesting season for Newell’s Shearwaters has some Hawaiians throwing a challenge flag.

Lastly, kudos to the Seattle Audubon Society for stepping up when thieves threatened to ruin a teenager with cancer’s dream birding trip.

 

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.