Tag Archives: birds

chimney swift excrement

Earlier this week I wrote about yet another way that scientists can use poop: as an archive. On the campus of a university in Ontario, a chimney collected 48 years of poop from chimney swifts that roosted on its walls. … Continue reading

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more bird skins

In case Friday’s blog post didn’t have enough birds in it–and I don’t know how that possibly could have been enough birds for anyone–here are some more. The day after I interviewed the scientist at Yale for my blue feathers … Continue reading

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spring approaches

In a few weeks, the trees around the Tidal Basin will burst into flower. The prediction came out yesterday: the peak should be somewhere in the range of March 24-31. (Keep up with progress on the National Park Service’s cherry … Continue reading

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blue feathers

A little over a year ago I went to New Haven to visit a scientist at Yale who studies the color blue. He’s an ornithologist who started out studying birds in the field, but lost most of his hearing and … Continue reading

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snow leopard scat

Proving yet again that I am the go-to writer for all your poop news needs, I wrote a brief item that appeared on ScienceNOW yesterday about studying snow leopard diet through DNA analysis of their feces. The study found that … Continue reading

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museum tourist: natural history museum, london

“The dinosaurs!” That’s what my boyfriend, who is British, told me I had to see at the Natural History Museum in London. So the museum and I sort of got off on the wrong foot when I discovered that the … Continue reading

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museum tourist: national aviary

The other day, my boyfriend and I were very amused by the billboards we saw along the road into Pittsburgh. “RAPTORS!” proclaimed one. “PENGUINS!” said another. These billboards were advertising the National Aviary, which happened to be near our hotel, … Continue reading

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unlikely friendships

My former National Geographic colleague Jennifer Holland has a new book. It’s the #9 book on Amazon right now. The book, Unlikely Friendships: 47 Remarkable Stories from the Animal Kingdom, is about animals that are buddies. There’s a monkey that … Continue reading

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dodos were skinnier than you thought

The excellent David Grimm at ScienceNOW wins again…by assigning me yet another cool story. This time, it’s about a little kerfuffle in the journal Naturwissenschaften about the body size of the dodo. The dodo, you may recall, was a flightless … Continue reading

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albatross update

You’ll be glad to know that Wisdom the albatross and her chick survived the tsunami. Whew. Here’s the Fish & Wildlife Service press release. Here she is her feeding her chick two days ago: Another 110,000 chicks and 2,000 adults … Continue reading

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