This week in birds - #606

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

This is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week, the Upland Sandpiper, a bird of open grasslands, hayfields, and prairies. It is one species that seems to be doing well; its numbers are increasing.

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Is the carbon sink that keeps Nature in balance failing?

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A botulism outbreak in California has caused mass bird deaths. More than 94,000 birds have died.

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These thirty-four species are not "new" but they've only recently been discovered by humans.

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A reforesting project is revitalizing Rio. And in Ireland, one landowner is rewilding his land in hopes of changing an area that had become an ecological desert.

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Here's how scientists use a wind tunnel to study bird migration. 

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A new marine sanctuary has been created off the coast of California.

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And halfway around the world, here are some of the creatures that call the Atlantic Ocean home.

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And in the waters off the Galapagos Islands lives one of the strangest of creatures - the Red-lipped Batfish. 

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It seems that many countries are not doing well in achieving the goals they set for themselves for preserving Nature.

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The Natural History Museum in London has designed a garden to trace 500 million years of geologic history.

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In British East Africa in the 19th century, two man-eating lions were the cause of great terror in the region.

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As a teenager, I loved reading stories in National Geographic about the Leakey family's discovery of fossils in the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. Discoveries are still being made there and they still fascinate me.

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A dying sugar maple tree in Pennsylvania lives on in new forms.

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Water shortages around the world are threatening our ability to produce food.

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The boundary between the United States and Mexico is defined by the Rio Grande River. It doesn't need a wall to reinforce it. 

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Is it possible for scientists to recreate the Thylacine, the Tasmanian Tiger? 

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The National Zoo in Washington, D.C., is teaching people how to band birds.

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What are these gooey white blobs that are washing up on Canada's beaches?

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Can two Brazilian politicians unite to help save the Amazon?

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Artificial nests are helping endangered penguins breed.

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A research team has found microplastics in the breath of dolphins.

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One woman learned the hard way that you shouldn't feed raccoons.

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I am a fan of spiders so I was interested to see this story about three remarkable members of the species.

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A molecular biologist who won the Nobel Prize thanked a worm in his acceptance speech.

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The University of California at San Diego is requiring students to take a climate change course in order to graduate. 

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Southern killer whales are on the brink of extinction, but it is not because of a lack of food. 

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British Petroleum (BP) is retreating from its targets designed to make it a net zero energy company by 2050. 

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Researchers are collecting wolf howls in Yellowstone National Park as a means of estimating the population of the canids.

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Another scientific study is looking into how humans evolved to eat starchy foods.

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A high-rise development in Brooklyn threatens to put the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in its shade. 

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A comet last seen in the times of the Neanderthals will be visible from parts of the northern hemisphere this weekend.

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And far out in space, the question of whether life exists on Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter, is still unanswered. NASA is planning to send a probe to investigate.

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In her latest column, Margaret Renkl considers the changing of the seasons.

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Trail cams in Alaska offer intimate looks at the lives of animals.

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Finally, here's a look at some baby Gyrfalcons taking their momentous first flight.