Category: conservation

Birds are going extinct: Entire species are hanging on by their wingtips

"Deforestation and the pet trade have ravaged avian populations, and the consequences for mankind could prove dire." That's how Salon introduced an excerpt recently posted from The Annihilation of Nature: Human Extinction of Birds and Mammals by Gerardo Ceballos, Anne H. Ehrlich, and Paul R. Ehrlich. The excerpt originally appeared on Earth Island Journal, and you…

Enjoying nature in Maryland during the holidays

Guest post by Bryan MacKay With Winter Solstice just past and the year end approaching (with head-scratching mild weather persisting here in the east), there are plenty of  reasons to get outside in Maryland this month. For inspiration, we once again turn to Bryan MacKay’s A Year across Maryland, his week-by-week guide to enjoying the…

Meet us in Jacksonville: American Society of Mammalogists

The long-anticipated fourth edition of the leading mammalogy textbook by George A. Feldhamer, Lee C. Drickamer, Stephen H. Vessey, Joseph F. Merritt, and Carey Krajewski is the featured book at this year’s Johns Hopkins University Press book display at the American Society of Mammalogists 2015 Annual Meeting. Mammalogy headlines a list of titles that cover every aspect of…

Meet us in Jacksonville: American Society of Mammalogists

The long-anticipated fourth edition of the leading mammalogy textbook by George A. Feldhamer, Lee C. Drickamer, Stephen H. Vessey, Joseph F. Merritt, and Carey Krajewski is the featured book at this year’s Johns Hopkins University Press book display at the American Society of Mammalogists 2015 Annual Meeting. Mammalogy headlines a list of titles that cover every aspect of…

The nature of our neighborhood: house sparrows

Guest post by Leslie Day The house sparrow’s Latin name, Passer domesticus, means small, active bird (Passer) belonging to a house (domesticus). House sparrows are tough little New York City birds that fill our parks, streets, sidewalks, and back yards with their daily comings and goings. One hundred house sparrows were introduced from Europe into Brooklyn and Manhattan…

The nature of our neighborhood: house sparrows

Guest post by Leslie Day The house sparrow’s Latin name, Passer domesticus, means small, active bird (Passer) belonging to a house (domesticus). House sparrows are tough little New York City birds that fill our parks, streets, sidewalks, and back yards with their daily comings and goings. One hundred house sparrows were introduced from Europe into Brooklyn and Manhattan…

Happy birthday, Frederick Law Olmsted

Sunday, April 26th, marks the birth date of Frederick Law Olmsted. No short list of the most important and influential Americans of the nineteenth century would omit the name of Frederick Law Olmsted: mid-century agricultural reformer; sharp-eyed observer of slavery and slave society before the Civil War; mainstay of the United States Sanitary Commission; and…