BP Update from Montana Audubon

Restoring the Gulf after the BP Oil Spill
The Gulf Coast supports migratory birds from all across America. This week Congress could provide essential funding – stemming from oil spill penalty fines – toward the largest ecological restoration program ever.

We need to ensure penalty fines actually go to the Coast (and not treasury). Our Senators matter and they could vote on THE RESTORE ACT this week.

Please TAKE ACTION AND ASK THEM TO VOTE YES

Audubon President David Yarnold explains why the time in NOW.

Interesting Information From Montana Audubon

From the January issue Montana Audubon News. PLEASE READ!!!

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Energy and Climate News
January News a Plenty:

-We work to ensure must-needed renewable energy projects are designed with wildlife in mind. We have significant concerns for the raptors that make their home on the Kevin Rim cliffs where new towers are proposed.

-Check out this fascinating research conducted via the University of Montana that links climate change to songbird population declines.

-The EPA recently rolled out a new tool – a map of Greenhouse gas emitters across the US. Montana is home to the 8th largest in the country, and the second largest in the west. Whew.

-Mercury that comes from Colestrip and other emitters (see above) affects our songbirds according to this new research.

-Yellowstone River Oil Spill Settlement. Here’s the latest as the AP reported and via the Billings Gazette. Consider oil from Montana up to the Arctic – from National Audubon Society – Speak up for the birds and wildlife of the Arctic Ocean.

-Keystone XL Pipeline. On January 18, President Obama stood up to Big Oil when he denied a federal permit for the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, which would carry dirty tar sands crude oil from Alberta to Texas. Yes!

Matt

Feds Say Grim Outlook For Yellowstone Whitebark Pine

The article is in the November and December issue of Montana Outdoors Magazine…it writes that 70% of the Yellowstone Whitebark Pine is dead…this is from a US Fish and Wildlife Service report…The finger is pointed at the pine bark beetle, climate change is implicated and I see this acknowledgement as a step in the right direction…can I get an amen from the choir…AMEN!
Matt

Invasion?

In an emai today I am reminded of the Ennis Cristmas Bird Count in which we saw 31 Rough-legged Hawks.Snowy Owls and Gyr Falcons have been seen in open areas throughout the west and midwest. These arctic densions are known to invade this area when food is scarce where these birds winter in the north.
One of the theories I have heard is that global climate change is melting the perma frost and thus the nesting habitat and reducing popultions of prey species…and thus these northland species are headed “south” in search of food…This sounds plausable if we determine we are being invaded from the north.
Matt

Post more when better

My computer is on the frits I will post when I fix it.
Matt

Taking Time Off

Im more faithful posting to this than my average reader.Since 2006, when I was diagnosed with a terminal disability, I have posted 1,766 of these pieces…ranging from global climate change to birds and bears and so on. I am going to take a 2 week break unless I find some earthshattering news which I feel compelled to share with you…
Matt

Christmas Bird Counts

One of the ultimate types of Citizen Science is upon us and your serrvice is needed for the Christmas Bird Count.
In my state these counts are sponsered by the Montana Audubon Society and their area citizens group, which in my case is the Sacajewea Audubon Society…the dates for Christmas Bird Counts are usually found on the local groups website…your help is needed no matter if you consider yourself to be a beginer birder.
Matt

Kevin Rim, A Montana Audubon Important Bird Area

I am supportive of wind turbines, but not here! !!!
Matt
Kevin Rim IBA. Montana Audubon has a new web page dedicated to this IBA, a prairie bluff habitat that provides nesting sites for lots of raptors—and may soon feature wind turbines perched on top of the cliff face: learn more

Birding Press I Read

Although I regularly read magazines like Birdwatchers Digest I have read both Audubon and Birding (ABA), along with Winging It, for over 20 years…and on the web I will read Cornell Lab and anything from the Montana Audubon Society…on the computer.
Matt

The Rosetta Stone for Warblers

There are so many improvements on bird technology…I come from a time (recently) where field guides ruled…now there is this.This can be brought at the Cornell Field Lab for Ornithology.

Warblers and spectrograms of their nocturnal flight calls. Black-throated Gray Warbler by Roy Brown; others by Laura Erickson.

See the Rosetta Stone for Warblers
By day, warblers dazzle us with their colors and songs. By night, they migrate unseen, uttering calls lasting a fraction of a second. Using the “Rosetta Stone for Warblers,” the Cornell Lab is creating tools to listen to the night sky and identify the birds passing overhead. Thanks to new grants and gifts, we’re also developing a project called BirdCast to forecast migration using radar, sound, weather data, and observations from eBird. See the Rosetta Stone for Warblers.