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“Thank you for bringing science and community together in a joyful radio show.”
— Colleen, East Walpole, Massachusetts
On our latest show (#1,037 May 11): Danae Wolfe offers tips on bringing nature to your yard; Mike O’Connor exposes the problems with puddles; and we listen to an audio postcard from a class of young birders in Iowa. Hear it here.
Stand up for the Endangered Species Act
The Endangered Species Act (U.S.) applies to all plants and animals, not just Whooping Cranes. This short read explains the significance of the Act and provides links for comments from the public. That means us. Deadline is Monday, May 19th. (5/16)
Inside a puffin burrow
This Atlantic Puffin cam shows the life of puffins at home in their burrow on Seal Island, 21 miles off the coast of Maine. (Eastern time.) During Hog Island camp season, attendees take boat trips out to Seal Island, but of course nobody gets to see inside a burrow, so this is a real treat. (5/14)
Video: Gray Catbird mimickry
All Gray Catbirds are mimics, but we think this one took the advanced class. Greg Budney, former audio curator of the Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, analyzes the recording, noting each snippet of mimicked song. (5/8)
University of Montreal Peregrine Falcons
This is one of the best Peregrine Falcon cams we’ve ever seen. When we tuned in about 5:30 Eastern, we saw an adult sitting on eggs, occasionally getting up to turn them. This cam is noisy -- sounds like machine noise -- so no need to turn up your sound. (5/7)
Bird beak shapes aren't random - they follow a hidden pattern
Birds have always impressed people with beaks that come in every imaginable shape and form. This variety is striking, yet researchers have discovered that nearly all adhere to a single mathematical formula. (5/2)
Early birds get the worm, pretty birds get the research
Birds that are colorful, iridescent or have fancy plumage are researched as much as three times as often compared to more run-of-the-mill birds, according to a new report. (5/15)
“Greening” your yard
Ray's recent guest Danae Wolfe is all about making our yards not just bird-friendly but conservation-friendly. So when she spoke with Ray on our show #1,037, she mentioned not just replacing lawns with native plants, but also the single best tree to plant, why we should rethink our holiday decorations, and more. (5/13)
For the first time, all avian evolutionary relationships revealed
Colleagues at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and U.C. Merced have mapped the evolution of every known bird species as part of the Open Tree of Life (OpenTree) Project. This collaborative project is intended to build an accurate, comprehensive evolutionary tree that describes how every named species on Earth is related to every other. How cool is that? (5/6)
Bringing Hawaiian birds home
Ray spoke with Bret Mossman of Birds of Hawai'i the Past and the Present on our latest show (#1,035 Apr. 27). What strikes us most about this project is that so many specimens of Hawaiian birds are housed outside Hawaii. The project intends to bring home all these specimens by photographing them. Check out the progress so far. (4/28)
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Bird vocalizations provided by The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Website photography by Shawn Carey/Migration Productions.