This week in birds - #517

 A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment:

The beautyberries are ripe and that is always good news for the birds like this American Robin.

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A new study warns that the planet is on the brink of five dangerous climate tipping points and indeed may have already passed some of them.

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Meanwhile, a September heat wave is breaking records in the United States.

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California has suffered a triple threat this week: a heat wave, fires, and a hurricane.

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The heat wave in the West has broken records in California, which has suffered temperatures in excess of 110 degrees F.

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Here in the Gulf region, things have been hot but quiet. No hurricanes to contend with so far.

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Those wildfires in California have proved deadly. Two people died in the fires there this week. Prescribed burns in certain areas are being used to try to control the fires.

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In an unusual move to help protect the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, lobsters have been red-listed there because the whales frequently become entangled in the lobster nets and pots.

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A highly virulent form of bird flu has been found in a bottlenose dolphin and a stranded porpoise.

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Researchers said this week that large swathes of the Amazon rainforest have reached a tipping point and may never recover.

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People continue to put their lives on the line to try to save that rainforest and sometimes those lives are lost. It happened again this week.

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Farmers and ranchers are frequently at war with beavers but they would be wise to see them as partners in protecting the land.

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In Canada, a woman walking along a beach with her dog found a fossil from an unknown reptile that is probably older than the dinosaurs.

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A seven million-year-old fossil cranium found in Chad has provoked a rancorous debate over whether it is an ape or perhaps the oldest human yet found.

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And in Georgia (the European one not the American one) a 1.8 million-year-old tooth belonging to an early human has been found showing that humans lived there at least that early. 

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The Yakima Water Basin in Washington provides a successful example of water management for areas like the Colorado River Basin where seven states need to agree on a plan of usage.

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A new paper out this week warns of the need to protect Earth's 60,000 tree species in order to stave off global ecological disaster.

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Three bottlenose dolphins that had spent years in captivity in a resort hotel were released into the open seas of Indonesia this week.

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In India, an 80+-year-old woman has devoted her life to planting and nurturing trees in order to prevent deforestation.

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A new study has revealed some striking differences between Neanderthals and modern humans in the development of their brains.

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The persistent drought in Europe has brought some ancient monuments to light including a structure that is being referred to as the "Spanish Stonehenge."

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Can an animal truly live forever? Maybe this jellyfish can.

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Sea lions along the southern California coast are being poisoned by a naturally occurring neurotoxin that is present in tiny single-celled marine algae.

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Elk in Virginia? Yes, indeed, and here they are.

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Motion-triggered cameras in the Olympic National Forest in Washington have documented the presence of the Pacific marten, a rare native carnivore of that area. 

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Using Nature as a weapon in war? It may in fact be the ultimate weapon.