This week in birds - #655

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

This is a Black Phoebe. It is a resident near watery landscape features all along the west coast of North America and down into Central America and along the western coast of South America. Like other phoebes, it often nests near humans and even in or on human structures. Its population is increasing all along its range. It is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week.

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Jane Goodall became my hero when I first read about her in the pages of the National Geographic back in the 1960s. I've followed her career ever since and I am saddened to know she is no longer physically among us, but what a legacy she has left!

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And at the opposite end of the spectrum, what a legacy this man will leave as he wages war on clean energy and seeks to revive "big coal."

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Scientists now believe our species could be older than previously thought, based on the reconstruction of a million-year-old skull.

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In a quarry in the U.K., five sets of tracks of four-legged sauropods and a three-toed carnivore have been found. The tracks are about 166 million years old.

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Indigenous people occupied the Arizona desert for centuries, a place now considered sacred to the remnants of that culture.

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Life-size engravings of animals dating to as much as 12,800 years ago have been found in Saudi Arabia's Nefud Desert.

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Bearded Vultures return to the same nest site generation after generation and those sites often yield interesting artifacts for researchers. For example, historical nests in southern Spain contained more than 200 human artifacts including a 650-year-old sandal.

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Even after its destruction by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, Pompeii continued to limp along as a much reduced shantytown.

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Octopuses are invading the the English Coast and gobbling up fish, crab, and lobsters in their path.

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Earthwork circles dating to 6,500 years ago (that's nearly 2,000 years before Stonehenge) have been found in Austria.

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A Whooping Crane chick has died of avian flu at a Wisconsin wildlife refuge. It was the first known death of a Whooping Crane from avian influenza.

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Ancient clay puppets, some 2,400 years old, have been discovered at a site in El Salvador.

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Southern sea otters along the California coast are doing their best to help with the problem of invasive European green crabs by gobbling them up.

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Africa's lion population is declining. What can be done to help them?

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Should the gray wolves of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming be on the Endangered Species List, or no? There is a difference of opinion among authorities who have a say in the matter. 

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To avoid predators, animals may employ opposite strategies; some display bright colors as a warning while others seek camouflage in their surroundings.

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And the winner of "Fat Bear Week" weighing in at more than 1,000 pounds is the aptly named Chunk. Chunk's road to victory was made more difficult due to having suffered a broken jaw in June. Still he managed to pack on those pounds and earn his crown.

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Here are pictures from The Guardian's "Bird Photographer of the Year" winners.





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