Birding in the News 2

Selected stories about birders and birding culled from the world's newspapers and other news outlets, as gathered with the aid of Google news alerts:

Popularity of birding looking up (Providence Journal, R.I.)—More bird enthusiasts are visiting national wildlife refuges, Audubon Society refuges, and other areas to observe and photograph birds. California and Hawaii rank at the bottom of the list in term of the percentage of residents who consider themselves birders, while Montana and Vermont are at the top.

A case for capitalization? (Nantucket Independent, Mass.)—Many species of gulls are little, but there is only one Little Gull.

Kingston Field Naturalists release new edition of bird book (Kingston Guide, Can.)—Birds of the Kingston region by Ron Weir, the first update to this comprehensive work in 20 years.

Bridget Butler on changing migratory bird patterns (Vermont Public Radio)—Audio Interview with local birding expert about links to global climate change.

Climate change may have delayed pelican migration (San Jose Mercury News, Cal.)—Brown Pelicans migrating south from Oregon and Washington about two months later than usual encountered harsh winter storms, resulting in disoriented and frostbitten birds.

Birders flock to Jekyll Island event (Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville, Fla.)—The aim of the Bird Education Network’s 5-day conference—attended by 112 birding educators from across the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, and Panama—is to "promote bird conservation by supporting people who teach birding." We’re teaching people how to teach birding? Yikes! I’d much rather that they learn how to teach basic bird ecology and conservation.

Tiny bird 'backpacks' help to track migration habits (Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, N.Y.)—These devices are now small enough to affix to songbirds.