Yellowhammer – Emberiza citrinella
Often the way, you’re looking for one bird, when you hear and then spot another. Happens a lot with the yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella). Today, I was walking a short distance along the Aldreth Causeway and could hear avian jostling over the floodbank, scrambled to the top, saw nothing but flittering wings heading into the scrub, turned around and encountered this yella fella, sitting among the seed heads, not twenty feet from where I stood, making his call…
It’s distinctive call, Mrs Sciencebase’s Dad always told her, sounds like the bird was passing out the post-war rations: “two-slices-o...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - July 31, 2017 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Science Snaps Source Type: blogs
A Little Bit of Trade Liberalization by the Trump Administration
As part of the100 Day Action Plan on economic issues that the U.S. and China negotiated back in May, there was agreement by both sides to liberalize trade in a few areas. It was a relatively minor set of issues, but nonetheless there was some real progress. The Trump administration likes to tout exports, not imports, so in the ir remarks about the agreement, they tended to focus on areas of interest to U.S. exporters. To provide some balance, I’m going to take it upon myself to tell everyone about some import liberalization the U.S. carried out as part of this agreement. In the agreement, the U.S. said it would...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 11, 2017 Category: American Health Authors: Simon Lester Source Type: blogs
How My Life With MS Resembles the Flight of a Songbird
I don’t have a problem falling with my MS; I fall, I get back up, no problem … except, of course, when the fall is the problem.
But I try to focus on the time in between the literal and figurative multiple sclerosis (MS) falls in my life.
Cherishing My Time Between Falls
A slow stretch of the legs down the laneway with my pack — my two Wheaten Terriers, Sadie and Maggie — today reminded me of that time between falls.
Yesterday was one of those soft, damp days that Ireland is known for. Thick, gray mist hung in the air all the day, and the long light of near midsummer through the thick clouds made for a constant ...
Source: Life with MS - June 27, 2017 Category: Neurology Authors: Trevis Gleason Tags: multiple sclerosis Everyday Health life with MS Living with MS MS Fitness MS symptoms Symptom management trevis gleason Source Type: blogs
As sure as eggs is eggs
The shape of a bird’s eggs depends on how it flies, according to new scientific results. Sleek birds adapted to streamlined flight tend to lay more elliptical and asymmetric eggs, according to new research published today. The work cuckolds the classic theories about egg shape.
Broadly speaking, birds’ eggs can be ball shaped or elongated ovals. They can have one pointy end or be very symmetrical. Diet, nest space, cliff dwelling and other factors have all been scrambled to explain why some eggs are one shape and others another. Now, Joseph Tobias from Imperial College London, writing in the journal Science e...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - June 22, 2017 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Science Source Type: blogs
Public Health Funding And OMB Director Mulvaney ’s “Taxpayer First” Test
The first formal budget of the Trump era—billed as a “Taxpayer First” budget—contains some very bad news when it comes to the health of the American public. It proposes dramatic cuts in federal investments that keep us healthy and protected from harm, including a $1.2 billion cut from the budget for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This is on top of the catastrophic cuts that will occur with the loss of the Prevention and Public Health Fund if the Affordable Care Act is repealed.
It is the opposite of both what American taxpayers have asked for and what is owed to them.
Office of Management and...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - June 8, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Edward L. Hunter Tags: Costs and Spending Featured GrantWatch Public Health Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Chronic Care Consumers Effectiveness Health Philanthropy Health Promotion and Disease PreventionGW vaccines Source Type: blogs
Spooning in Aldeburgh
A recent visit to Aldeburgh gave us a small haul of photographic avian trophies, distant Eurasian spoonbills not least, although friends Brian Stone and Peter Green tell me that what I hoped was a nuthatch was actually a wheatear. There was a sweet tweeter out there too, which I think may have been a sedge warbler.
Meanwhile, the spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia), tall waterfowl with a spatulate bill, hence the name, scientific binomial hints at the broadness of bill and the second part means white heron. Rare breeding pair in the UK dining on the body of water known as the mere the south part of North Warren Nature Reserve ...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - May 18, 2017 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Birds Science Source Type: blogs
Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita)
The common chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita) is a widespread leaf warbler. It is very similar in appearance to the willow warbler (P. trochilus) mentioned previously on Sciencebase. The chiffchaff’s legs are dark rather than pale, it is a slightly more compact bird than the willow warbler and has a more rounded head and shorter wings. It is their songs that sets apart these two avian cousins. Whereas the willow warbler warbles with a melodic, song, the chiffchaff makes an almost metronomic “chiff, chaff, chiff, chaff, chiff, chaff” sound…to my ear it’s actually more of a regular “t’s...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - May 17, 2017 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Science Source Type: blogs
Birdsong, flight, music, inspiration
Unless you’ve been ignoring me on here, on Facebook, Twitter, 500px and elsewhere, you probably noticed I’ve had a bit of an avian fixation recently. I’m writing about them, photographing them for a gallery of British Birds, and generally educating myself about our feathered friends. By sheer coincidence, my own book publisher (E&T) sent me a copy of a book about birdsong (A Sweet, Wild Note) by my nest-mate Richard Smyth, which I have mentioned elsewhere.
In it, Smyth discusses the nature and context of birdsong, what it means to us and our best guess as to what it means to birds. He talks of avian m...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - April 20, 2017 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Science Source Type: blogs
Long-tailed tit (Aegithalos caudatus)
Aegithalos caudatus, the long-tailed tit, undertaking aerobatic manouevres among the bursting buds of hawthorn, the claws of dog rose and bramble in a hedgerow full of avian life. (Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science)
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - March 30, 2017 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Science Source Type: blogs
Long-tailed tit (Aegithalos caudatus)
Aegithalos caudatus, the long-tailed tit, undertaking aerobatic manouevres among the bursting buds of hawthorn, the claws of dog rose and bramble in a hedgerow full of avian life.
http://www.sciencebase.com/images/XC287689-Long-tailed-Tit-Aegithalos-caudatus.mp3 (Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science)
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - March 30, 2017 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Science Source Type: blogs
Collared dove continuity error
You wouldn’t have heard the plaintive and ubiquitous sound of an English summer, the incessant “coo-coo-coooh” of a collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto) here until 1953, when they first began to settle and breed.
According to Wikipedia:
The collared dove is not migratory, but is strongly dispersive. Over the last century, it has been one of the great colonisers of the bird world, travelling far beyond its native range to colonize colder countries, becoming naturalised in several. Its original range at the end of the 19th century was warm temperate and subtropical Asia from Turkey east to southern China ...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - March 15, 2017 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Science Source Type: blogs
The Practical Side of Trump's Trade Policy
Yesterday, John Bolton had anop-ed in the WSJ criticizing the dispute settlement process used at the World Trade Organization. He argued that this process “is often criticized for failing to deter violations of the WTO’s substantive trade provisions,” and it also exceeds its mandate “by imposing new obligations on one or more parties, particularly against American interests.” Somehow, then, in his view, the pr ocess is both ineffective AND infringes on sovereignty, an impressive achievement. My colleague Dan Ikenson systematically dismantles the piecehere.Talking about international dispute procedures in th...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - March 9, 2017 Category: American Health Authors: Simon Lester Source Type: blogs
Student Researcher Finds New Clues About Flu with Old Data
Do you like to find new uses for old things? Like weaving old shirts into a rug, repurposing bottles into candle holders or turning packing crates into tables? Katie Gostic, a University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) graduate student, likes finding new uses for old data. She channeled this interest when she analyzed existing data to study whether childhood exposure to flu affects a person’s future immunity to the disease.
Gostic conducted research for the flu project during the summer of 2015 when she was visiting her boyfriend, a tropical biologist, in Alamos, Sonora, Mexico. Credit: Charlie de la Rosa.
As an und...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - February 21, 2017 Category: Research Authors: Roya Kalantari Tags: Being a Scientist Computers in Biology Big Data Infectious Diseases Training Source Type: blogs
What Three Decades Of Pandemic Threats Can Teach Us About The Future
Editor’s Note: This post reflects on a speech on pandemic preparedness Dr. Fauci gave on January 10, 2017 in Washington, DC, hosted by The Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University Medical Center, the Harvard Global Health Institute, and Health Affairs.
One of the most important challenges facing the new Administration is preparedness for the pandemic outbreak of an infectious disease. Infectious diseases will continue to pose a significant threat to public health and the economies of countries worldwide. The U.S. government will need to continue its investment to combat these diseases whe...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - February 9, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Anthony S. Fauci Tags: Featured Global Health Policy Ebola HIV/AIDS NIH pandemic preparedness Zika Source Type: blogs
Shooting more birds
Selected photos of birds I’ve shot recently with a 600mm Sigma on my 6D, allows you to get quite close without disturbing our avian friends, at least until they are startled by the sound of the camera shutter. Click the kingfisher to open my Flickr gallery or visit the Fluidr version of the page here. (Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science)
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - January 30, 2017 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Science Source Type: blogs
