This week in birds - #679

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

The American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week is the Red-naped Sapsucker, a bird of the forest that, true to its name, relies upon sap as its staple food source. It prefers deciduous or mixed deciduous-coniferous forests, especially areas with aspen groves or riparian habitat with thin-barked deciduous trees. Its population is increasing in these areas and its conservation status is of least concern at present. This is a bird of North America and can be found in parts of western Canada, the United States, and Mexico.

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The administration in Washington continues to take a wrecking ball to government services. This week it hit the Preventive Services Task Force, firing two of its members.

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Do you drink bottled water? The plastic bottle may pose a hazard to your health.

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Warblers are some of the most beautiful and colorful birds that we have in North America. Here are some hints about how to attract them to your yard.

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And here are the fifty warbler species that you could potentially see/attract. 

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A powerful El Niño appears to be forming in the Pacific. Its effect could be devastating.

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The saga of Timmy, the humpbacked whale that had gotten stranded off the German coast, had a sad ending.

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The Great Pyramid of Giza has stood for 4,600 years, a testament to the skill of ancient Egyptian architects and engineers.

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Africa is slowly breaking a part. The rift in East Africa may cause that section to break off from the continent sooner than had previously been thought.

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The war on Iran has placed the world's most endangered big cat, the Asiatic cheetah, in peril.

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Portland, Oregon, a forward-thinking city, has embraced solar power as a way to reduce emissions and lower energy bills.

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Whooping Cranes are simply amazing birds. If you have a chance to see them in the wild, take it! Here are eight interesting facts about them. 

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Researchers have found that beluga whales are able to recognize themselves in mirrors.

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A 2,000-year-old mummy has been found with a papyrus fragment of the Homeric epic, The Iliad, sealed in a clay packet outside its wrappings.

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A gray wolf has been sighted in Sequoia National Park in California for the first time in over a hundred years, more evidence that California's growing wolf population is expanding into new territory.

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The Environmental Protection Agency (which seems to have abandoned the "protection" part of its name) is planning to rescind drinking water standards for four of the "forever chemicals". 

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Here's the Weather Channel's outlook for summer temperatures in the United States and, no surprise, it looks like my part of the world may be hotter than usual.

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And in more news from where I live, this summer solar power will be overtaking coal on the Texas power grid. Might as well take advantage of all that sunlight!

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