March is for Winter Wildlife Field Days
It may be hard to imagine with the snow and ice we’ve seen in the past week, but we are less than three weeks from the official start of spring. Before we say goodbye to winter, there are plenty of wildlife and nature experiences to pack into this month. All through March, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Corvallis Environmental Center and other local partners are presenting Winter Wildlife Field Days, a schedule of dozens of events and activities highlighting the best of winter nature here in the Willamette Valley.
Every few days, a new winter wildlife field station will pop up in a local park or natural area, offering guided tours, hands-on activities and more. It all starts in Lilly Park on Thursday, March 2nd from 2:30 to 5:30 PM. From there, the action will move to Ankeny Hill Nature Center, Cloverland Park, Garfield Park, and other locations around the area. For a complete schedule, click here.
OSU Study Lists Climate Feedbacks
Oregon State researchers continue to be on the cutting edge of climate research. This week, OSU researchers Bill Ripple, Christopher Wolf and Jillian Gregg published a new study that explores one of the most difficult to predict aspects of the climate crisis: feedback loops. Rising global temperatures due to human-emitted greenhouse gas has a wide array of effects, from ocean acidification to desertification and opening of Arctic passages usually closed by ice. Some of these effects can lead to positive feedback, making climate change even more extreme. Others have negative feedback effects, helping to limit warming. The new study lists and categorizes these feedback loops, and attempts to factor them into both climate models and climate policy.
The classic example of a feedback loop has to do with melting ice. As more sea ice melts, areas that were once white ice, which reflects light, turn to dark water, which absorbs it. So more heat leads to less ice, which leads in turn to more heat. Negative feedback loops include the so-called “greening” of formerly dry or cold areas into new forest land. These areas can sequester more carbon into plant matter, having a slight cooling effect. In both cases, having a clearer understanding of these feedbacks is vital to getting more precise estimates of the future of climate change.
What to Do if You Find a Dead Bird
This past week, several reports surfaced of dead American Robins, one of our most common Corvallis winter birds, in both Corvallis and Philomath. It’s not unusual for wildlife to be affected by sudden weather changes like the ones we’ve seen in the past few weeks, but there are also other explanations, such as avian flu or other disease outbreaks. If you see a single dead bird, look for some of the usual explanations for its death. Did it hit a window or building? Could it have been hit by a car? Was it killed by a cat or other predator? These are all things that happen to birds in our area all the time. But if you see more than one dead bird, or any dead waterfowl—ducks and geese are especially at risk from bird flu—wildlife biologists at Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife want to know about it, so they can investigate. Call ODFW’s dead bird reporting hotline at 866-968-2600. Click here for more information.
By Ian Rose
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