Friday, March 19, 2010

Bad News Friday

First, a story about how CITES itself has voted to continue trade in endangered species.

Read the UK Times article here.

Second, a short story and lots of pictures - not for the fainthearted.  Even in remote colonies, Albatross parents are finding plastic in the ocean and feeding it to their chicks, killing them.

The last image is a heartbreaker.  Click here.

Both tips via russlings.
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Tuesday, March 16, 2010

"Leucistic" Puffin - very cool

Very cool "leucistic" Atlantic Puffin, photographs here, tip given on the 10000 birds blog.

Time to revisit a rant...  Leucistic is a useless term.  The article states this bird is diluted. It's not, look at the dark spots.  It's got large white areas.  Another tipoff is the small dark areas on the rest of the body - a dilute will either be diluted overall, or will have one color diluted. 


The difference is clear to see, and the photo doesn't fit the description - looks more like the pigment is absent in most places, not that it's diluted.

Read my full-on rant here.
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The Year Without A Summer

Wow, found this on the Choosing Voluntary Simplicity blog, a newspaper clipping from 1889 describing the New England summer (or rather, lack thereof) from 1816, a year with hard frosts in each month. Described by the farmers as "Eighteen hundred and starve to death". 

Hello, perspective!