Outdoor notebook: Join the Great Backyard Bird Count - Salt Lake Tribune
Compiled by John Renshaw
Great Backyard Bird Count
Bird watchers who participated in this year's Great Backyard Bird Count broke last year's record by submitting more than 93,600 checklists during the four-day event, Feb. 16-19. Participants also identified 619 species, and sent in thousands of bird images for the GBBC photo contest.
In Utah, participating birders counted 63,550 birds from 160 different species.
"Each year the GBBC provides the most detailed real-time snapshot of bird distribution across North America," said Rob Fergus, senior scientist with the National Audubon Society, which sponsors the event along with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. "We can see how birds are responding to changing weather patterns, available food sources, and other factors from around the continent."
One of the biggest stories came from the massive invasion of pine siskins and white-winged crossbills over much of the eastern United States. These birds moved southward because of seed crop failures in their usual wintering grounds in Canada and the boreal forests, a phenomenon known as irruption. GBBC participants reported 279,469 pine siskins on 18,528 checklists, compared to the previous high of 38,977 birds on 4,069 checklists in 2005.
National Science Foundation (press release)How Rats Evolved to Survive Natural PoisonFor the new study, which will be published in the April 7th issue of the scientific journal Molecular Ecology, UU researchers have collected 16 rats from the American Southwest – eight from the Mojave Desert and another eight from the Great Basin. Poison: It's what's for dinner