And so the fun begins

Birds not migrating:

But in a sign of the blurring of the seasons brought on by climate change, one of the birds has this year shunned migration to Africa and instead spent all winter in Britain.

In what experts say is the first documented evidence of the species "overwintering" here, a solitary swallow has been monitored from November to the end of February in a village near Truro, Cornwall.

Paul Stancliffe, a spokesman for the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), called the discovery "incredible".

[snip]

In the BTO programme, a single wheatear was found to have overwintered in Burniston, near Scarborough, North Yorkshire, instead of in west Africa. Some 5,000 chiffchaffs, which normally migrate there or to Spain or Morocco, spent the winter in Britain. Mr Stancliffe said: "These are birds that would ordinarily migrate south of the Sahara. We believe it is because our winters are getting milder and birds are actually able to survive here through the winter."

The bird atlas programme will run until 2011, with 50,000 volunteers reporting sightings. The last time the exercise was carried out, in the 1980s, fewer than 1,000 chiffchaffs were found to be overwintering in Britain.

As further evidence of climate change, volunteers have also recorded "early returns" by many migrants this year, as well as unseasonably early nesting by birds that ordinarily remain here.

Salmon are dying via Kirk Murphy at Firedoglake:

The largest salmon run in the largest estuary on this hemisphere's Pacific Coast has collapsed. Why care about a bunch of fish and a big marsh? Well, healthy salmon runs require healthy water: fresh and salt. Crashing salmon runs tell us something in the water(s) has gone terrribly wrong. SF Bay fresh water is sucked up to supply central California crops and communities and Southern California taps. With over 17 million people in the LA area alone, and with California producing over half the nation's fruit, vegetables, and nuts, SF Bay water affects the price of your greens - and the health of your family, wherever they live. And the salmon tell us the Bay is very sick.

Polar ice is melting faster than expected (via Sorghum Crow):

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The thickest, oldest and toughest sea ice around the North Pole is melting, a bad sign for the future of the Arctic ice cap, NASA satellite data showed on Tuesday.

But wait! We're saved! They've invented this:



Oddly it reminds me of the Mechanical Hound in Fahrenheit 451 .... which is why I want to beat it to death immediately.

Silent spring

And summer, fall and winter thanks to Avian flu and West Nile virus:

WASHINGTON, May 17 U.S. researchers have determined the West Nile virus has apparently caused the continental-scale decline of seven species of birds across North America.

The finding by Shannon LaDeau and colleagues at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington is said to be a stark example of the potential havoc that can be wreaked by invasive species, and should impact future conservation strategies.

Researchers used 26 years of Breeding Bird Survey data to determine the impact of the West Nile virus on 20 North American potential bird hosts. They found declines in seven species from four families, including the American crow population, which has dropped by 45 percent since the virus emerged.

If you see any dead birds and you feel it might be a disease that killed them, this site, although set up for tracking Avian flu, offers you a way to report it. A suggestion: Do not handle the dead bird without precautions.

The migratory routes of birds which may carry the virus: