'It flew right over Alaska and it landed just west of Herschel Island, at Qikiqtaruk [Territorial Park], along the coast along the Yukon's North Slope,' Cameron Eckert, a conservation biologist with Yukon Parks and a bird enthusiast, said of the bar-tailed godwit.
"Since about May 25, crews have been seeing multiple species showing what we believe are signs of highly pathogenic avian influenza. The signs we are seeing widespread is a headshaking that we equate to "getting the cobwebs out", like a person may do when they first wake up. This behavior occurs regularly every couple minutes. This behavior has been observed in: black brant, cackling geese, bar-tailed godwits, dunlin, lapland longspurs, spectacled eiders, emperor geese, greater white-fronted geese, sabines gulls, glaucous gulls, and red-necked phalaropes."
The heaviest puffling (baby puffin) ever recorded in Iceland was weighed by scientists in the Vestmannaeyjar archipelago recently, and the director of the South Iceland Natural History Institute believes the puffin stock overall may never have been bigger than now. The news comes after many failed breeding seasons since 2000 and worries for the species’ future.
Despite extensive and expensive work last summer to prevent further oil leaks from the Second World War shipwreck El Grillo, in Seyðisfjörður, oil is still leaking into the sea. It is thought the wreck still contains some 10-15 tonnes of oil.
Extreme drought in the west means that households with private waterworks are out of water. Elvar's dried up. "The situation is very serious," he says.
At this time of year, the geese are moulting — and therefore unable to fly — so they congregate near ponds to avoid the Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus), which is reluctant to jump into the water. But the bear was about to use a new hunting technique: he dove under the water, disappeared from the eyes of the geese who had stopped fleeing, and emerged from underneath one of them.
Starting last week, regional residents reported numerous dead seabirds washing up on regional beaches. Alaska Sea Grant Agent Gay Sheffield said there were carcasses of murres, puffins, shearwaters and a kittiwake starting on July 28; in Golovin, Solomon, Nome and a dead Little Diomede.
Double-crested cormorants have been observed in the St Lawrence River region, with record-breaking numbers, in recent years.
Residents note significant changes in the Christiansen Lake ecosystem since 2019. This includes fewer nesting birds, fish, and mammals around the lake, while the leech population has increased along with the occurrence of algal blooms.
Eight raptor casualties in a matter of weeks is a worrisome spike.
A group on a glacier expedition on Langjökull yesterday stumbled across a puffin lying in the snow. According to group leader Martha Jónasdóttir, the bird was found right at the centre of the glacier—Iceland's second-largest.
Birders are continuing to flock to Greystones in Co Wicklow after what is believed to be the first ever sighting of a brown booby in Ireland.
The last few weeks have seen another alarming uptick in the number of dead, emaciated seabirds found washed up on the shores in the Bering Sea.
They were sighted in an area that was historically part of the endangered bird’s range. At least six visited the park in late May.
The arrival of pelicans in Kugluktuk, Nunavut was a surprise, but it's a sign of healthy pelican colonies in general, and in particular of the colony near Fort Smith, N.W.T.
Most bird species are slow to change their songs, preferring to stick with tried-and-true tunes to defend territories and attract females — but this shift went viral across Canada.
Between the Seward Highway and Hillside neighborhoods, a pair of swans are raising five just-hatched cygnets. This is the first pair of swans to nest at Potter Marsh in the memory of Anchorage Coastal Refuge managers and local birders.
About a month ago, residents of St. Lawrence Island found a patch of oily, white goo on the beach, along with some dead sea birds covered in the substance.
Northern anchovy are becoming more comment perhaps due to warmer temperatures. A 10-centimetre-long fish represents an anchovy that's about a year old suggesting that the fish are spawned locally in the pelagic zone, or upper, warmer zone of the seawater.
One person was evacuated and brought to safety after the landslide at Kråkneset in Alta municipality. A total of eight buildings were swept to the sea in the 650-metre landslide. Due to a high avalanche risk, police have still not entered the area.
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