News
WA tribes, conservation groups sue over Trump endangered species rule
1+ hour, 13+ min ago (313+ words) Northwest tribal nations and conservation groups sued the Trump administration Tuesday, challenging a new rule that aims to eliminate habitat protections for imperiled species. For more than fifty years, degradation or destruction of habitat that impairs, kills or injures threatened…...
A bird’s brain holds clues to the sounds of music
2+ day, 2+ hour ago (767+ words) Imagine a chicken that could speak or a pigeon with a voice rivaling that of the most musical songbirds. Granted, the world probably doesn’t need any gossiping chickens or pigeons breaking out in song. But why some birds learn to…...
Why some California coastal birds are dying in droves
2+ week, 3+ day ago (972+ words) Since March, beachgoers have discovered dozens of sick or dead seabirds along the coastal stretch between Santa Barbara and San Diego. Among them have been “tremendous numbers” of dead Brandt’s cormorants, said Rebecca Duerr, the veterinarian and research director for…...
Rant & Rave: Reader witnessed duckling rescue
2+ mon, 4+ day ago (490+ words) The Seattle Times RAVE to the two caring young men who rescued five orphaned ducklings in Burien after their mother was hit by a truck. (So glad you had a shoebox in your car!) RANT to rich people and their…...
Topless enforcement at Seattle’s nude beach sparks new legal challenge
2+ mon, 3+ week ago (455+ words) Advocates for Seattle’s longtime unofficial nude beach asked a King County judge this week to clarify that being topless at Denny Blaine Park does not violate court-ordered nudity rules imposed there last summer. Nevertheless, private security guards hired by a…...
A home for herons amid the houses of Bainbridge Island
2+ mon, 3+ week ago (1127+ words) BAINBRIDGE ISLAND — Megan Rohrssen speaks for the great blue herons of Winslow. “I’m hungry and the tide is out,” Rohrssen said after one took flight from its nest of sticks high in a maple tree, heading toward the intertidal wetlands…...
How to bring a bird’s song back from the edge of extinction
3+ mon, 3+ week ago (769+ words) Regent honeyeaters were once abundant in the forests of southeastern Australia, congregating in enormous, eye-catching flocks. Today, the black-and-yellow songbirds are critically endangered, with just a few hundred remaining in the wild. As the birds disappeared from the landscape, so…...
What Seattle ospreys taught me about hope — it is a thing with feathers | Op-Ed
3+ mon, 4+ week ago (766+ words) The Seattle Times I had always known that only hindsight would reveal to me when she was truly gone, that the last time I saw her was indeed the last, and that was goodbye. For me, for us, this was…...
Bird populations: ‘Please keep pet cats indoors’
4+ mon, 1+ day ago (162+ words) The Seattle Times Thank you for featuring the issue of declining bird populations. Climate change is a serious factor. Heat waves can kill nestlings, while warming temperatures lead to more severe storms that impact migration. Agriculture’s impact on birds is…...
Salmon: ‘Much-needed progress’
4+ mon, 1+ week ago (244+ words) The Seattle Times As an ecologist who has lived in this area for over 35 years, I was encouraged to read that a federal judge has ordered operational changes to eight dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers in order to…...