California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus) courtesy Wikipedia Commons
California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus) parents, Sisquoc and Shatash, have been patiently caring for and incubating their egg that is now beginning the first stage of hatching. The egg started to pip yesterday and the pip-to-hatch period can last between 48 and 72 hours.
You can watch this process at the San Diego Zoo’s Condor Cam during daylight hours and see the first ever Condor chick to hatch live online!
I have been blogging about this catastrophe for over three years but I am pleased to say that today the senate narrowly rejected a Republican measure that would have allowed construction on the Keystone XL pipeline to begin immediately.
This issue is so important on so many fronts I can’t even begin to impress on people how important it is. If you love birds, you will do everything you can to make sure the Keystone XL Pipeline does NOT go through.
Watch this interview with Dr. Jeff Wells on the Boreal Forest and the impact of the tar sands development on the forest and wildlife habitat in Alberta, Canada and on the entire continent.
The degradation of the Boreal Forest, North America’s premiere bird nursery, is threatening millions of birds every year. And for what? The only beneficiaries of this catastrophe in the U.S are the oil companies refining the dirty oil. The refined oil products will all be shipped to Asia.
In 2009, TransCanada told the Canadian government that Keystone XL is meant to relieve the oversupply of oil in the Midwest. By diverting oil to ports in the Foreign Trade Zone in the Gulf of Mexico, the pipeline would cause oil prices to rise in the Midwest, which will likely mean consumers will pay more at the pump for their gasoline.
As the American people learn the true facts about this debacle they are sure to reject the Keystone XL Pipeline.
The Republicans are digging themselves a hole they will never get out of. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner blasted out multiple statements today on the issue, as they are eager to paint Obama’s opposition as both job-killing and detrimental to gas prices. Both of these claims are false.
Along with all the Senate Republicans, eleven Democrats voted for the pipeline. I suggest these Dems need a good talking to: Baucus (D-MT), Begich (D-AK), Casey (D-PA), Conrad (D-ND), Hagan (D-NC), Landrieu (D-LA), Manchin (D-WV), McCaskill (D-MO), Pryor (D-AR), Tester (D-MT) and Webb (D-VA). If any of these Democrats belong to you, I suggest writing them a letter or emailing them to explain your disdain for their vote.
Once again, if you love birds, you will oppose the Keystone XL Pipeline. The problem couldn’t be more blatant—Senators and Representatives take money from people like Exxon and Koch Industries, and they give them gifts, with our money. It’s gone on for years, and it needs to stop. The vote today is a perfect example: the Senators voting for the pipeline have received $27,552,302 from fossil fuel industries, on average 3 times more than those voting against it.
Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline by joining the Natural Resources Defense Council and send a message to your Senators and Representatives telling them that you oppose this project now and always.
Please join me in telling our senators that the Keystone Pipeline must be stopped. If built, the Keystone XL Pipeline would transport dirty tar-sands oil across six states and hundreds of water bodies, making any spill an unacceptable risk.
An existing pipeline called Keystone 1 has already leaked 14 times since it started operating in June 2010, including a 21,000-gallon spill. Another tar-sands pipeline dumped 800,000 gallons of tar-sands crude into the Kalamazoo River.
This is the first time that the pipeline has had an up or down vote in the Senate. If we can block Keystone on this vote, we will be in a much stronger position to keep it bottled up in the future.
I was hoping you could send a strong message to your Senators to put a nail in the coffin of this project. There are two ways you can send a message:
Two: You can use Facebook and Twitter so that everyone knows they’re getting the message. Senate staff monitor these accounts closely, and they show the public how a Senator’s constituents feel about the pipeline. We set up a tool that connects you with your Senators’ Facebook pages and Twitter accounts, where you can leave a note about stopping the pipeline: Click here to send them a message on Facebook and Twitter.
Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus) photos by Larry Jordan
These slender wading birds are so elegant in their contrasting plumage and their long, slender reddish legs as they slowly forage through the shallow wetlands. In the photo above, the female Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus) is in the foreground with the two darker males behind (click on photos for full sized images).
During breeding season, when Black-necked Stilts are paring up, they can be very territorial and often have confrontations with conspecifics. This is probably a pair that was interrupted by a young female (a pair being recognized as such once a female associates with a male long enough that he tolerates her).
California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus) courtesy Wikipedia Commons
Social Media Connect