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The return of the Old Man

10,000 Birds

They were my target species, and I remember being delighted in not only seeing them well, but finding feeding flocks that were remarkably unconcerned about being watched. On a visit in October 2022, I found ibises feeding with cattle in scruffy roadside paddocks adjacent to the marismas ( photographs below ).

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Birding Shanghai in June 2023

10,000 Birds

This leaves Shanghai in June with basically just the year-round species and the summer breeders, maybe with a few added ultra-lazy individuals of migratory species. Fortunately, there are a few more such breeding species than most Shanghainese are aware of. Such as the Black-winged Cuckooshrike.

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Honey, I Shrunk The Dinosaurs!

10,000 Birds

There is a fantastic paper just out in Science : “Sustained miniaturization and anatomoical innovation in the dinosaurian anceestors of birds” by Michael Lee, Andrea Cau, Darren Naishe and Gareth Dyke. Whales emerge from within the larger group of mammals that includes cattle, deer, pigs, camels, with camels being the most deeply rooted. (So

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Birding Chongming Island in summer

10,000 Birds

Unfortunately, in the science of language, this does not sound particularly raunchy but rather like a rational decision: “A rare species such as the Chinese Pond Heron might choose heterospecific mates rather than abandoning all chances of reproduction.” This Cattle Egret has just read a paper stating that it would be 3.6

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Better Birding: A Book Review (& a New Year’s goal)

10,000 Birds

All species are from the ABA area, and all groups must meet at least one of these criteria: (1) the group “represented a good opportunity to build core birding skills,” (2) the authors thought it was a group that needed “a refreshed treatment,” (3) the authors were intrigued by the group and wanted to present it using their unique format.

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Africa’s endangered species

10,000 Birds

More than 150 bird species are known to have become extinct over the past 500 years, and many more are estimated to have been driven to extinction before they became known to science. The Gray Crowned-Crane is a new addition to the list of the world’s Endangered species, creeping up a category from Vulnerable.

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From Today's New York Times

Animal Ethics

Davis, an emeritus professor of animal science at Oregon State University, says the horses “damage” the environment. A total of 33,000 wild horses are degrading the environment, but around 3 million to 4 million cattle are not? Animals in nature don’t need to be controlled by a species that has such difficulty in controlling itself.