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Best & Worst States for Animal Protection

Critter News

New Jersey Illinois Massachusetts Colorado Maine WORST STATES Ohio Hawaii Alabama North Dakota Mississippi Idaho South Dakota (worst) According to the Animal Legal Defense Fund, the states fell this way. BEST Illinois (best) Maine Michigan Oregon California WORST Mississippi Idaho Hawaii North Dakota Kentucky.

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Saw a nesting pair of sandhill cranes along the side of the highway today; Northeastern Illinois.

Reddit Animals

submitted by /u/MiekerBeaker [link] [comments].

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The Warbler Brewery: Canopy 2 Double India Pale Ale

10,000 Birds

Birds and Booze News: Imperial Oak Brewing of Willow Springs, Illinois has collaborated with the Chicago Ornithological Society for a second year to release a Piping Plover Pale Ale , with proceeds of its sales going to conservation and education efforts by the Society. Good birding and happy drinking! Four out of five feathers (Excellent).

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Canines Go for the Gold at Doggy Olympic Games Across the U.S.

4 The Love Of Animals

Canine athletes are jumping through hoops to capture the gold at Doggy Games in Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Ohio, New York, New Jersey and Texas. Just check out these amazing doggy athletes!

Game 199
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Calling all Dogs: Celebrate National Dog Day with Free Ice Cream August 25

4 The Love Of Animals

Best Friends Pet Care is a leading national pet care company and offers boarding, daycare, grooming and training at 42 locations across 18 states, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia.

Dogs 214
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Where Are All the Cats?

Critter News

Last summer, Alley Cat Allies conducted an analysis of Illinois Department of Agriculture reports collected from the 247 animal pounds and shelters licensed by the state that handled cats in 2006. More than 60,000 cats were killed in Illinois animal pounds and shelters in 2006. Things don't look too good.

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10,000 Birds goes eBirding – Part II

10,000 Birds

However, most states still have less than 100 species, including: Missouri (98, unchanged); Wyoming (97, unchanged); Georgia (94, up from 54); Nevada (93, up from 53); Delaware (88, up from 83); Maine (82, up from 76); South Carolina (82, up from 49); Louisiana (81, up from 73); Alaska (79, up from 34); Maryland (62, unchanged); Illinois (50, up from (..)

Birds 105
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eBird and Urban Planning: City Green Spaces

10,000 Birds

The authors are Bianca Lopez ( The New School ), Emily Minor ( University of Illinois at Chicago ), and Andrew Crooks ( George Mason University ), and the article is “ Insights into human-wildlife interactions in cities from bird sightings recorded online.”. The photos are from Millennium Park.).

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Solid Air: Invisible Killer Saving Billions of Birds From Windows–A Book Review

10,000 Birds

More than concerned, he is dismayed and alarmed and has been since January 1974, when he first witnessed a Mourning Dove fly into a window and fall to the ground dead on the Southern Illinois University campus. This was his trigger moment, when he decided to find out why birds fly into glass windows and die.

Birds 105
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Raptor Map Suggests Best Spots to Scan the Skies

10,000 Birds

I’ve been fortunate enough to enjoy outings to two hotspots that aren’t yet on the map: Chestnut Ridge Hawkwatch in Bedford, NY, and Illinois Beach State Park in Zion, Illinois. (The image above is James Currie’s, from Hawk Mountain in Pennsylvania.).

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Endangered and Disappearing Birds of the Midwest by Matt Williams

10,000 Birds

Focusing on an often under-appreciated portion of the continent, the book showcases forty species found in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio – but perhaps not for long.

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Animal Legal Defense Fund Ranks States on Animal Protection

Critter News

Among the best: California, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Oregon. The ALDF has released a report on how different states' animal protection laws stack up.

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What is the State Bird of North Carolina?

10,000 Birds

In addition to North Carolina, six other states have named the cardinal their state bird, including Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, and Ohio. A male Northern Cardinal. I’m not the only one who appreciates the Northern Cardinal.

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The indistinguishable Empidonax Flycatchers

10,000 Birds

Of course, if you are an average birder in, say, Illinois or Alberta, you probably haven’t lost too much sleep over this group, in spite of its difficulty. Small, grayish, with indistinct wing bars and eye rings. Why they can’t all agree on a single species and lump themselves, I’ll never know.

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Emerald Ash Borers vs. Woodpeckers (and Nuthatches)

10,000 Birds

Flower, from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Christopher J. Whelan, from the Illinois Natural History Survey, explained, “The increased utilization of EAB-infested ash trees by woodpeckers and bark-foraging birds observed in our study demonstrates that woodpeckers are able to shift their behavior to actively target EAB.”

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The Flight of the Vultures

10,000 Birds

But the turkey vultures would certainly leave the places we saw them – Montana, North Dakota, Illinois and Indiana, Pennsylvania and Ohio and eventually New York – and head south. The only bird we saw in every state was the Turkey Vulture. No vast kettles, yet, only ones and twos.

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7 Tips for Creating a Dog-Friendly Yard

4 The Love Of Animals

Since 2000, Chris Long has been a store associate at a Home Depot in Illinois. Considering our canine companions when designing a landscaping plan is a perfect way to make our pets a true part of the family. He also contributes to the Home Depot blog, and writes on topics which include home automation and CFL light bulbs.

Dogs 250
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Obama's Rules Freeze May Help Wolves

Critter News

Wildlife conservationists say the freeze will delay and possibly prevent the removal of gray wolves from the federal endangered species list in Montana, Idaho, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, and also in portions of Washington, Oregon, Utah, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio.

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Could Radar Help Make Birdstrikes a Thing of the Past?

10,000 Birds

Another researcher, from the University of Illinois, asserts that the bugs need to be worked out of these systems before they’re cleared for widespread use. The article cites avian radar proponents in the Netherlands and Israel who suggest that this technology can be quite effective at reducing the risk of birdstrikes.

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Humane Society Endorses Obama

Critter News

As an Illinois state senator, he backed at least a dozen animal protection laws, including those to strengthen the penalties for animal cruelty, to help animal shelters, to promote spaying and neutering, and to ban the slaughter of horses for human consumption. Barack Obama (D-Ill.)

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The Parakeet of City Streets, the Monk Parakeet

10,000 Birds

In the 1970′s, they were responsible for the destruction of up to 45% of certain crops.** The initial impetus for Pruett-Jones’ studies was to find out if the Chicago Monk Parakeets posed a threat to Illinois farmers. Urban parakeets in Northern Illinois: A 40-year perspective. Urban Ecosystems , Sept.

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How cold is it?

10,000 Birds

I can’t speak for other locations, but the Illinois birders’ listserv has been pretty dead today. Most birds will probably fare just fine, if the cold snap is as short-lived as predicted. True, few hardy human souls are dedicated/crazy enough to go birding in these conditions (did I mention a windchill of –35?);

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Snowy Owl Invasion!

10,000 Birds

Here in New York State Snowy Owls have been reported in more than ten counties, with most of those counties having birds being seen in multiple locations.

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Reasons to Choose a Pet-Friendly Retirement Community

4 The Love Of Animals

About the Author: Monarch Landing is a Chicago senior living community located near the city in Naperville, Illinois. So you can see why a pet-friendly retirement community makes tons of sense for anyone who owns a pet or simply enjoys the company of animals. Anything to the contrary would be … unnatural.

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The Uncommon Demise of a Wood Thrush in Costa Rica

10,000 Birds

Had birders and hikers heard its ethereal song in deciduous forests of southern Illinois? All we can say is that it saw its chance and took it. Where had the unfortunate bird spent the summer? Was it a young, inexperienced bird that grew up in the wet woods behind some subdivision in Ohio?

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Some Chinese Pheasants

10,000 Birds

As a popular game bird, the Ring-necked Pheasant seems to have such high importance in the US that there are several papers just discussing the species in individual US states. Examples: California. Connecticut. New Jersey. North Dakota. Rhode Island. South Dakota. Washington. Wisconsin.

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On Wipeout and Lion Burgers

Animal Person

They're from a legal farm in Illinois, so the law isn't the reason. Here's my first problem with this: The number of lions in the wild is not affected by the farming operation in Illinois. I was curious about why it's so terrible to eat lions. It's probably going to come down to culture , I thought. Lions aren't food in our culture.

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European Goldfinch in Socrates Sculpture Park

10,000 Birds

In Chicago in the early 2000s a sudden influx of European Goldfinches – possibly due to a rogue deliberate release – resulted in nesting records from Illinois and Wisconsin. New York is no more immune to such stunts than other cities.

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Large-billed Terns at the Trincity Sewage Ponds

10,000 Birds

One has been seen in New Jersey in 1988 , in Illinois in 1949, and in Ohio in 1954 (Links are PDFs.) – interestingly, all in May.). Though the Large-billed Tern is a bird of freshwater rivers, lakes, and marshes of South America it does wander to North America on very rare occasions.

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What Flies Over Costa Rica in the Night?

10,000 Birds

I dread to imagine what Yellow-billed Cuckoos from Illinois, Missouri, and elsewhere will find when they arrive on these wintering grounds in 2020. All of these habitats are increasingly threatened by deforestation and massive fires fueled by climate change. Common Nighthawks. Droves of this nightjar of summer nights fly over Costa Rica.

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Western Bluebirds Are Back

10,000 Birds

Musselman of Quincy Illinois is generally credited with originating the bluebird conservation movement that extended beyond local boundaries. The vegetable food consists chiefly of fruit pulp, only an insignificant portion are from cultivated varieties.” ” Nest Boxes (Bird Houses) from 1912. It was in 1926 that Thomas E.

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10,000 Birds goes eBirding

10,000 Birds

Even some states that technically have checklists barely qualify: the great state of Illinois has just a single checklist with two species (from an airport). Despite the absence of species, many of these are excellent birding states and/or have birding festivals ( e.g., the Biggest Week in American Birding in Ohio).

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Splish Splash, Chicago

10,000 Birds

The Magic Hedge is renowned as one of the premier warbler watching sites in Illinois. Airline logistics and politics have kept me from Chicago for a while, so a trip there in the latter half of April was eagerly anticipated.

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Serendipity Plus Avocado = Yellow-billed Cuckoo

10,000 Birds

Did it nest in some remnant riparian zone in the west or did it swoop between forest patches in southern Illinois? If I could put some tent caterpillars out there in the backyard, I would! I wish I could ask it where it came from. Did it stop off in Mexico, Honduras, or Florida? Fly over the lights of cities in the east?

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The Mottled Duck – A Birder’s Duck

10,000 Birds

You find them in the south from Florida to Texas and down into Mexico, occasionally as far north as the Carolinas in the east and up the Mississippi River as far north as Illinois. It is one of several species in the Mallard -complex of ducks, along with American Black Duck , Mexican Duck , and quite a few others.

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What is a Black Hawk?

10,000 Birds

But how many people know what a Blackhawk is?

Birds 102
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Clapper and King rails may represent four or five species

10,000 Birds

King Rail and chick in Illinois cc-by Andy Reago. The birds’ mitochondrial DNA shows that, despite rails’ propensity for long-distance travel, the freshwater and saltwater populations are not two ends of a spectrum but rather maintain their distinctiveness despite the occurrence of hybridization in brackish environments.

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It's Back! The Horror of Horse Slaughter in DeKalb

Animal Ethics

In DeKalb, Illinois, that monster is Cavel International, the only remaining plant in the U.S. Cavel, a Belgian company, kills horses in Illinois for export to Europe. In response to citizen outrage over horses being slaughtered in Illinois, the Illinois legislature decided to tie off the loophole for good by passing House Bill 1711.

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Vote Now for Awesome Ornithology Projects!

10,000 Birds

Maria and I, first-year graduate students in Zac Cheviron’s lab at the University of Illinois, Urbana-. My labmate Maria Stager and I have entered a contest for a $10,000 research grant from Endnote. To win, we need your votes! Champaign, are studying the genetic basis of morphological and physiological adaptations in birds.

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Earth Day Lecture

Animal Ethics

Since a number of "Animal Ethics" readers reside in the northern Illinois area, I thought I would call your attention to an exciting lecture that is taking place on Northern Illinois University's campus. This Earth Day, Sunday, April 22, at 6:00 p.m., Jenni, Ph.D.

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Peterson Field Guide to Mushrooms of North America, Second Edition: A Field Guide Review

10,000 Birds

of Illinois News Bureau, Nov. I’m looking forward to using the guide in the near future, assuming the snow melts and we can venture into the woods, fields, gullies, and marshes. They’re more than a pizza topping! * “North American checklist identifies the fungus among us,” by Diana Yates, Univ. 28, 2018, [link].

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The Feathery Tribe: A Book Review

10,000 Birds

Ridgway, born in 1850 in Mr. Carmel, Illinois, was a boy many of us would recognize; all he wanted to do was bird. The Feathery Tribe is both a biography of Robert Ridgway, the Smithsonian Institute’s first curator of birds, and a study of the historical and intellectual events which gave birth and form to ornithology. And, draw birds.

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Mylan

Animal Ethics

Years later, after he had gone off to teach at Northern Illinois University and I had gone off to teach at the University of Texas at Arlington, we discovered that we had a shared interest in animal rights. We went to graduate school together at the University of Arizona. I didn't like Mylan at the time, and I'm sure he didn't like me.