A Dark Sky Campus – For People and Wildlife

An interesting project and video to promote “A Dark Sky Campus“. The video was created by Jennifer West and Heather Matheson from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada. Light pollution effects everyone and produces a lot of waste. For birds it can be extremely hazardous during migration

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Review: Atlas of Bird Migration: Tracing the Great Journeys of the World’s Birds

Migration is one of the most fascinating subjects pertaining to birds, yet it still holds much mystery and secrets. Conservationists benefit from the study of migration, using past knowledge to predict where birds should be, and making observations on the changes of this natural occurrance. The Atlas of Bird Migration: Tracing the Great Journeys of

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Winnie the Whimbrel’s Record Flight

The College of William and Mary along with the Nature Conservancy have recently recorded a wayward Whimbrel, which they named Winnie, completing a record flight. In 146 hours this radio-tracked shorebird traversed 3,200 miles [nearly 22 MPH]. Whimbrel Photo from Mike Baird (Flickr Creative Commons) “This discovery sets a new distance record in the flight

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Illinois Migratory Thrushes

Illinois has seven regularly occuring thrushes, five of which are long-distance migrants: Wood Thrush, Swainson’s Thrush, Grey-cheeked Thrush, Hermit Thrush, and Veery. American Robins and Eastern Bluebirds (also in the thrush family) are year-round residents or short-distance migrants. Wood Thrush One of the most common of the migratory thrushes, the Wood Thrush is easily identified

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Migration Mapping – Purple Martins

The Purple Martin Conservation Association (PMCA) is a non-profit organization “devoted exclusively to the scientific study of Purple Martins (Progne subis), their biology, and habitat requirements”. One important project of the PMCA is called the Scout Arrival Study. They collect migration reports from all over the United States and then map them according to when

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