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A reprieve for Red Knots

Great news: New Jersey’s governor Corzine yesterday signed into law a moratorium on the harvest of Horseshoe Crabs in that state (press release here). This is great news for Red Knots – politicians have finally recognized the dire situation and put the needs of a species ahead of the seasonal income of a few fishermen. […]

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Greater Redpoll photos

Maybe I should change the name of this blog to “All about Redpolls”, but I’ve received a few photos that I wanted to pass along, making the point that “Greater” Common Redpoll is not just an eastern specialty. The AOU checklist and the BNA account report that this subspecies winters regularly from Labrador west to

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Redpoll investigation widens to include “Greater”

Maybe we are just more aware and looking harder for “Greater” Common Redpolls (Carduelis flammea rostrata) this winter in Massachusetts, or maybe it’s really an exceptional winter, but there is no doubt that they have come south in significant numbers. I have seen them on a couple of visits to Dan Berard’s feeders in Millbury,

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House Sparrow – "New" for North America?

[Major updates 25 Feb 2008, adding new information about the introduced Siberian populations] You might think that the words “intriguing” and “House Sparrow sightings” are mutually exclusive, but here’s a case where they go together! In October 2007 a flock of five House Sparrows showed up in the coastal village of Shishmaref in northwest Alaska.

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