DNR weekend reading: We’re bothering the birds and the crabs, apparently

A seal swims past some of the toxic creosote-treated pilings that a DNR-managed project will soon remove from Budd Bay at Olympia.

Here are links to reading selections about climate, the environment and other science topics  published recently by science journals, universities, websites, and other sources:

Newswise: Exurban Residences Impact Bird Communities Up to 200 M Away

A study by the Wildlife Conservation Society indicates that impacts to bird communities from a single rural, “exurban” residence can extend up to 200 meters into the surrounding forest. The findings suggest that even isolated rural residences can have a negative affect on sensitive bird species, such as the hermit thrush and scarlet tanager, that prefer unbroken forests, while others, like the blue jay and black-capped chickadee, often thrive with human neighbors.  Read more…

University of Bristol: Ship noise makes crabs get crabby

A study published  in Biology Letters found that ship noise affects crab metabolism, with largest crabs faring worst, and found little evidence that crabs acclimate to noise over time. The team from the Universities of Bristol and Exeter found that crabs exposed to recordings of ship noise showed an increase in metabolic rate, indicating elevated stress, which could have implications for growth. Read more…

University of Oslo: Windmills at sea can break like matchsticks

Medium-sized waves can break wind turbines at sea like matches, asserts Professor John Grue at the University of Oslo, who is one of the world’s foremost experts on wave research. Grue says an inexplicable wave phenomenon called ringing, which is a special type of vibration that occurs when choppy waves hit marine installations, arises at the rear of the turbine. Grue is now looking for a general mathematical formula that can explain the special phenomenon.  Read more…

University of Colorado: Volcanic aerosols, not pollutants, tamped down recent Earth warming, says CU study

A team led by the University of Colorado-Boulder looking for clues about why Earth did not warm as much as scientists expected between 2000 and 2010 now thinks the culprits are hiding in plain sight — dozens of volcanoes spewing sulfur dioxide. The study results essentially exonerate Asia, including India and China, two countries that have increased their industrial sulfur dioxide emissions by about 60 percent from 2000 to 2010 through coal burning.  Read more…

Science Daily: Loss of Wild Insects Hurts Crops Around the World

Researchers studying data from 600 fields in 20 countries have found that managed honey bees are not as successful at pollinating crops as wild insects, primarily wild bees, suggesting the continuing loss of wild insects in many agricultural landscapes has negative consequences for crop harvests.  Read more…

Follow DNR on:

DNR recreation site picnic bench hosts robin family

A DNR maintenance mechanic discovered this robins nest built in an unusual location: a picnic table. Photo: Lon Emmett/DNR

In early May, a DNR maintenance mechanic readying one of our recreation sites in Stevens County for its summer season opening spotted a robin’s nest built in an unusual location: a picnic table.

According to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s web page, “Living with Wildlife,” robin’s nests are often placed in the crotch of a branch, or saddled on a branch next to the trunk. The understructure of a picnic table that had been wrapped in heavy gauge black plastic for the winter must have seemed just as good to the female that selected the spot and, likely, did most of the nest building. Our mechanic did not remove the wrap from that table, of course.

About two weeks after hatching, these robins are ready to start leaving the nest, but will be cared for by their parents for up to four weeks. Photo: Lon Emmett/DNR.

Although the location left the young birds especially vulnerable to a host of predators (tree squirrels, chipmunks, raccoons, magpies, crows, ravens, and jays eat robin eggs and nestlings), these fellows were doing fine when the nest was checked two weeks later: the young leave the nest after 14 to 16 days and continue to be cared for by the parents for up to four weeks.

Learn more about robins and other species seen throughout Washington State on the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s web page, “Living with Wildlife.

table>

Follow DNR on: