I’m on my way south to chase the first harbingers of spring in our High Plains desert home.
Birds
Posted inArticles
The disappearing wetlands in California’s Central Valley
Where water is scarce, waterbirds pay the price.
Posted inArticles
The obscure music where wild animals sing from the heart
In a small corner of popular music, there are songs that have been written and sung in the haunting voices of animals, and the Canadian singer-songwriters Gordon Lightfoot and Ian Tyson have written what I think are the best of them. In Lightfoot’s “Whispers of the North,” a loon speaks: whispers of the northsoon I […]
Posted inDecember 7, 2015: Good Neighbors
Ending the murrelet malaise
After decades of declines, Washington state finally has a plan to preserve the bird’s habitat.
Posted inArticles
Cue the greater sage grouse lawsuits
With the bird’s non-listing under the Endangered Species Act, expect more of the legal crawl that got us here in the first place.
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KDNK Radio and HCN editor Jodi Peterson talk sage grouse
The greater sage grouse is at the center of the biggest experiment in the history of the Endangered Species Act.
Posted inArticles
Wild Science: Migratory birds on the Great Salt Lake
Scientists explore how phalaropes respond to less water and increased salinity.
Posted inAugust 17, 2015: Little Big Bird
The Endangered Species Act’s biggest experiment
Will an unprecedented collaborative effort and lots of tax dollars be enough to finally save sage grouse?
Posted inAugust 17, 2015: Little Big Bird
Timeline of the sage grouse saga
One step forward, two steps back, starting from 1995.
Posted inAugust 17, 2015: Little Big Bird
Tracking grazing’s impacts on bugs
A Montana biologist studies how livestock influence a favorite sage grouse food source.
Posted inArticles
Cliff-jumpers versus condors in SoCal
Can $5,000 fines and jail time protect an endangered species from thrill-seekers?
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Old mines still plague Montana’s Clark Fork
Why one of the nation’s largest Superfund river sites can’t address pollution from abandoned mines.
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Feds move to protect birds from oil pits and power lines
Planned regulations come as many Western migratory species experience steep declines.
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Feds opt not to list Mono Basin sage grouse
Conservation efforts persuaded officials that the Nevada-California population will fare well.
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Fowl play: California’s drought fingered in bird deaths
Native pigeons and waterfowl fall victim to avian disease.
Posted inAugust 18, 2014: Alaska's Uncertain Food Future
Fear the falcon
A man and his raptors take on Washington’s dump scavengers.
Posted inJuly 21, 2014: On the Wild Edge
Are we smart enough to solve our raven problem?
As ravens spread, they’re finding friends and foes in Western states.
Posted inGoat
ESA changes could help protect sage grouse on private land
In an increasingly subdivided and trailblazed West, southeastern Oregon’s Harney County is a place that can still make you feel small. From the empty blacktop two-lane highways 78 and 20, broad grasslands rise to sagebrush-studded mesas and hills that crest and break to the blue horizons like the landlocked waves of a parched sea. Drive-fast-with-your-windows-down […]
Posted inDecember 23, 2013: Beauty or Beast
The Latest: First federal prosecution of wind farm bird deaths
BackstoryDespite their clean-energy appeal, wind farms have a reputation for mowing down birds and bats. Much of the “bird blender” blame rests with one of the first farms, poorly placed on Altamont Pass near San Francisco (“Birds, blades and bats,” HCN, 5/02/05). But even with wildlife-friendly siting and better turbine technology, hundreds of thousands of […]
Posted inDecember 8, 2008: Out in the cold
For the birds
Name Scott RashidAge 45Day Job Chef at Eagle Rock High School in Estes Park, Colo. Time spent doing bird stuff “How many hours are in a week?” First date with his wife Going up to Rocky Mountain National Park’s tundra to look for ptarmigans.Other hobbies Aikido ESTES PARK, COLORADO Scott Rashid stands in front of […]