The eastern curlews
have “been hammered by habitat destruction up and down the entire flyway for the past 40 years”. Sean Dooley, a senior adviser at BirdLife Australia
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/apr/08/a-high-flying-visitor-the-wondrous-far-eastern-curlew-faces-fresh-threat-in-nt-wetlands-haven
#birds #MigratoryBirds #Darwin #ExtinctionCrisis
Abusing beaches as highways
"Overcrowding due to a surge in visitors at some of Queensland's pristine beaches has raised safety and environmental concerns. Reports of offences including reckless driving, littering and even defecating have increased at 4WD beaches in recent years amid a domestic tourism boom."
>>
https://au.news.yahoo.com/calls-for-major-change-at-popular-4wd-beaches-and-campgrounds-as-popularity-soars-224716506.html
#beaches #dunes #traffic #cars #vehicles #SUVs #4WDs #Biodiversity #wildlife #Invertebrates #birds #shorebirds #MigratoryBirds #turtles #NSW #Queensland #Australia #regulation #climate #tourism #FossilFuel #recreation #overtourism
Abusing beaches as highways
"Overcrowding due to a surge in visitors at some of Queensland's pristine beaches has raised safety and environmental concerns.Reports of offences including reckless driving, littering and even defecating have increased at 4WD beaches in recent years amid a domestic tourism boom."
>>
https://au.news.yahoo.com/calls-for-major-change-at-popular-4wd-beaches-and-campgrounds-as-popularity-soars-224716506.html
#beaches #dunes #traffic #cars #vehicles #SUVs #4WDs #Biodiversity #wildlife #Invertebrates #birds #shorebirds #MigratoryBirds #turtles #NSW #Queensland #Australia #regulation #climate #tourism
Traffic on beaches
It's the Wild West - turning beach ecology into a Woolies car park
Off-road vehicles are allowed to cause "serious ecological harm" to beaches, dunes and estuaries ecosystems. Vehicles traffic is causing "unequivocal serious and widespread damage" to coastal dune ecosystems. "All of the species had suffered negative effects caused by off-road vehicles. The four-by-fours running over them basically crush them to death."
"Professor Schlacher said the Noosa North Shore, Rainbow Beach, K'gari and Bribie Island were among the car-accessible beaches that were being "pummelled to death"". On Bribie Island "there can be 1,200 vehicles on the beach in one day, and that's ridiculous. It's just like a Woolies car park."
Ban 4WDs from beaches >>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-24/call-for-four-wheel-drive-ban-aussie-beaches/104990150
#NationalParks #beaches #dunes #traffic #cars #vehicles #SUVs #4WDs #Biodiversity #wildlife #Invertebrates #birds #shorebirds #MigratoryBirds #turtles #NSW #Queensland #Australia #regulation #climate
#Trump moves to relax rules against killing #MigratoryBirds
The #Interior Dept suspended a #legal opinion holding companies liable for accidentally killing ducks, cranes, pelicans, owls & other bird species.
#law #wildlife #conservation #birds #USpol@
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/03/10/migratory-bird-protections-suspended/
#Spring #migration season could cause uptick in #AvianFlu
By Brooke Griffin, KIRO 7 News
March 05, 2025
"Animal experts are warning people to protect their pets and farm animals from bird flu infection as migratory birds make their way across Washington State.
"Amber Betts with the Washington State Department of Agriculture tells us there are currently six million birds migrating across the United States, many of which will fly through Washington state as they head to Canada.
"She said with this current strain of avian influenza, #MigratoryBirds and #WildBirds are the main distributors when it comes to spreading the disease.
"'There’s different species that can have the virus without symptoms and then others if they get it it’s not good for them,' Betts said.
"Betts tells us bird flu kills chickens very quickly once they are infected but many wild birds will not only survive with the disease, they may not even show symptoms.
"She says the sick wild birds will fly across states and countries, infecting entire sections of land with susceptible chickens, ducks, and birds as they go.
"'It can live on surfaces for quite some time,' Betts said. 'If there’s a shared water source and an infected bird drinks out of that and then another bird drinks it, the disease can be shared that way and through droppings.'
"She tells us there are precautionary measures that can be taken to prevent the spread.
"'Make sure the water or food we leave out for our backyard birds is under a cover and not accessible by wild birds. Make sure they don’t have access to a pond where our birds have access as well as the wild birds.' Betts said.
"There have already been at least six confirmed cases of pet cats testing positive for avian flu in [#WashingtonState].
"'That’s the reason we are concerned every time we see migration season coming upon us,' Betts said.
She said the best practice is keeping your pets from drinking any standing water and farm animals away from fields with bird droppings is the best way to prevent them from getting sick."
https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/spring-migration-season-could-cause-uptick-avian-flu/4XY7RZUK7ZH3RMN3RHRV6EG7ZU/
#HPAINews #BirdFlu #AvianInfluenza #PetHealth
Magnetic Displacement Experiment Challenges Long-Held Theories On How Migratory Birds Navigate
--
https://phys.org/news/2024-11-magnetic-displacement-held-theories-migratory.html <-- shared technical article
--
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2024.1363 <-- shared paper
--
#GIS #spatial #mapping #migration #magnetism #geomagnetism #inclination #declination #bird #avian #navigation #biology #ecosystems #migratorybirds #breeding #wintering #reedwarblers #research #experimentation #magneticfield
![maps and charts - Predicted responses and results for the CMF treatment. (a) Map illustrating Eurasian reed warblers’ natural migratory direction (black arrow) from the study site (Illmitz, Austria; black dot) under natural magnetic field (NMF) conditions during autumn and the predicted migratory directions from the virtual displacement site (Neftekamsk, Russia; white dot) under changed magnetic field (CMF) conditions (magnetic inclination and magnetic declination changed), if birds do (white arrow) or do not (black arrow) perceive these magnetic values as a translocation and respond by re-orienting towards the site of capture or the migratory corridor of the population (see [other figure] for map colour key). Dashed isolines give values naturally occurring near the virtual displacement site (see Methods for exact values). (b) Orientation of birds tested under NMF conditions of the study site (left) and under CMF conditions (right). Black dots indicate the mean direction of each individual bird tested; arrows show the second-order mean directions and their vector lengths; the inner and outer dashed circles indicate the threshold needed for significance by the Rayleigh test (p < 0.05 and p < 0.01, respectively); solid lines either side of mean vectors show the 95% confidence intervals. (c) Results from our previous virtual magnetic displacements. Both the study site and the virtual displacement site are the same as in the current study.](https://files.techhub.social/media_attachments/files/113/511/109/583/373/274/original/474b5ebcc5ba3ede.jpg "maps and charts - Predicted responses and results for the CMF treatment. (a) Map illustrating Eurasian reed warblers’ natural migratory direction (black arrow) from the study site (Illmitz, Austria; black dot) under natural magnetic field (NMF) conditions during autumn and the predicted migratory directions from the virtual displacement site (Neftekamsk, Russia; white dot) under changed magnetic field (CMF) conditions (magnetic inclination and magnetic declination changed), if birds do (white arrow) or do not (black arrow) perceive these magnetic values as a translocation and respond by re-orienting towards the site of capture or the migratory corridor of the population (see [other figure] for map colour key). Dashed isolines give values naturally occurring near the virtual displacement site (see Methods for exact values). (b) Orientation of birds tested under NMF conditions of the study site (left) and under CMF conditions (right). Black dots indicate the mean direction of each individual bird tested; arrows show the second-order mean directions and their vector lengths; the inner and outer dashed circles indicate the threshold needed for significance by the Rayleigh test (p < 0.05 and p < 0.01, respectively); solid lines either side of mean vectors show the 95% confidence intervals. (c) Results from our previous virtual magnetic displacements. Both the study site and the virtual displacement site are the same as in the current study.")
Beautiful video produced by Cornell Lab of Ornithology - made because of a proposed new road that would pass through an Alaskan Wilderness area. Currently an undisturbed refuge for many, many different species, the highway would bisect the protected area, changing the environment forever, and putting all the wildlife at greater risk.
"Izembek"
https://youtu.be/RkBbA7iJN8g
Why #LightPollution is a solvable #environmental crisis
Excessive #OutdoorLighting is deadly to #animals and takes a toll on #HumanHealth and wellbeing, too. But when it comes to large-scale environmental problems, this one may be a relatively easy fix.
By Alissa Greenberg
Friday, April 1, 2022
"In recent decades, lightbulbs made with #LEDs arrived, a revolution in energy efficiency with seemingly little downside. After all, an #LED bulb converts some 90% of the electricity it uses into light, whereas a conventional incandescent bulb only converts about 10%. And LED bulbs are touted as lasting up to 25 times longer.
"But the physics of LEDs make them fundamentally different from incandescents. While those traditional bulbs put out warm white light made of all colors mixed together, LEDs filter blue-rich light through a specialized phosphor material, producing light that appears white to the human eye but is still more blue-intense than incandescents’ light.
"But #BlueLight is also the most disruptive to our #nighttime environment because it mimics daylight, disrupting the hormone production and sleep cycles of both animals and humans.
"#Melatonin, one of those hormones, helps the immune system destroy renegade cells dividing out of control. That can lead to other health issues, including heightened rates of #cancer. And, 'we’re not the only ones who produce melatonin,' says Mario Motta, a cardiologist and trustee of the American Medical Association. Even amoebae produce melatonin'—meaning even amoebae might be vulnerable to light at night.
"The impacts of light pollution are evident everywhere from human health to astronomy research, but they come into particular focus in the recent phenomenon of global species #dieoffs. Between 100 million and a billion birds die every year due to light pollution, according to Massachusetts IDA chapter president James Lowenthal. New York City recently dealt with a huge die-off, 'with flocks of #MigratoryBirds slamming into buildings,' says Sarah Bois, an ecologist at the island’s Linda Loring Nature Foundation and a member of Nantucket Lights. 'They’re attracted to light.' A 2015 study at New York’s 9/11 'Tribute in Light'' installation showed an increase from 500 birds within half a kilometer of the light beams before they were turned on to 15,700 just minutes after.
"The issue is a double whammy for birds because they rely on #insects for food—and those populations are plummeting, with light pollution contributing significantly to the so-called "#InsectApocalypse.” By some estimates, one third of insects attracted to light sources at night die before morning, either due to exhaustion or because they get eaten. And according to a study in Germany, the number of insects in that country alone that die after being attracted to lights can number 100 billion or more in a single summer.
"Some starve to death searching for food that should appear bluer at twilight but is lit up amber under streetlights, says insect conservationist Avalon Owens, a doctoral candidate at Tufts University. Some are thrown off by light just the way we are, because of their #CircadianRhythms. #Pollinators whose schedules are altered by artificial light miss the #flowers they’re evolutionarily paired with, if the flowers naturally close and open with the warmth of the sun. And insects that rely on circadian rhythms for their yearly development don’t hibernate in time for winter and freeze to death.
"On #Nantucket, these phenomena are of particular concern because the island is home to a remarkably healthy population of northern long-eared #bats, which are endangered. Like many birds, the bats rely on insects for food and are easily dazzled by light, putting them in increasing jeopardy. Jack Dubinsky, director of the Maria Mitchell Aquarium on Nantucket, says he’s concerned that adding increasingly lit-up nights to the challenges of #ClimateChange, water quality, and #ecosystem collapse could put huge pressure on some already struggling species. 'The more curveballs we throw, the less likely they’ll be able to find their way,' he says.
Read more:
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/light-pollution-led-nantucket-solutions/
Greg Cocks 
प्रियंका | Priyanka 