Los Angeles: Wildlife experts are trying to figure out why sick, disoriented and bruised California brown pelicans are being found in record numbers along more than 1,000 miles of coastline.
The birds, some of them dead, have been spotted from San Francisco to Baja California, Mexico. Many have been found far from their homes on roads, fields and backyards.
The pelicans started appearing late last month north of San Pedro in Southern California, then began appearing farther north, said Jay Holcomb, executive director of the International Bird Rescue Research Center in Fairfield, in Northern California.
The center's San Pedro facility received more than 40 birds in the past seven to 10 days, while the Fairfield one has received about 25, Holcomb said Tuesday.
A man vacationing in Baja California alerted the center about a similar problem there this week after discovering sick pelicans on the beach south of San Felipe.
Animals
Pelicans suffering from a mysterious malady are crashing into cars and boats, wandering along roadways and turning up dead by the hundreds across the West Coast, from southern Oregon to Baja California, Mexico, bird-rescue workers say.
© Bernie Kasper
Foam on a stream in southeast Indiana.
Foam on a stream in southeast Indiana.
Mercury concentrations in 73 percent of the samples exceeded the more restrictive state water quality standard protecting wildlife.
More than 80 percent of the water samples had detectable methylmercury, the most toxic form of mercury that accumulates in fish, birds, and mammals at the top of food chains.
In a separate report looking at mercury in rain and snow, USGS scientists found that mercury concentrations in more than 40 percent of the samples exceeded the Indiana water quality standard for human health and nearly all concentrations exceeded the standard protecting wildlife.
"Our studies are showing that mercury can be found in the water everywhere we've looked in Indiana, but the mercury varies from place to place and changes both seasonally and year to year," said USGS scientist Martin Risch, an author on both papers.
Hundreds of birdwatchers have gathered in a Cornish village to catch a glimpse of a rare snowy owl. 
The bird, which is a native of the Arctic Circle, and is usually found in Greenland, Canada and Russia, has been seen at Zennor, near St Ives.
It is the first time in 60 years one has been seen in Cornwall.
In Britain, the snowy owl is usually only a rare winter visitor to Shetland, the Outer Hebrides and the Cairngorms. On average there are between one and four seen each year in the United Kingdom.
The young owl was believed to appeared in Cornwall after being blown off course by storms. Birdwatchers said it appeared to be content, and at home in the freezing temperatures.
© SWNS
The owl was first spotted in Cornwall on Dec 21
The owl was first spotted in Cornwall on Dec 21
The bird, which is a native of the Arctic Circle, and is usually found in Greenland, Canada and Russia, has been seen at Zennor, near St Ives.
It is the first time in 60 years one has been seen in Cornwall.
In Britain, the snowy owl is usually only a rare winter visitor to Shetland, the Outer Hebrides and the Cairngorms. On average there are between one and four seen each year in the United Kingdom.
The young owl was believed to appeared in Cornwall after being blown off course by storms. Birdwatchers said it appeared to be content, and at home in the freezing temperatures.
© iStockphoto
Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon forests has flipped from a decreasing to an increasing trend, according to new annual figures recently released by the country's space agency INPE.
Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon forests has flipped from a decreasing to an increasing trend, according to new annual figures recently released by the country's space agency INPE.
Commenting on the figures, Brazilian environment minister Carlos Minc confirmed that the government will on Monday announce forest related carbon emission reduction targets, which will link halting deforestation to the national climate change campaign.
From August 2007 to July 2008, Brazil deforested 11,968 square kilometers of forests in the area designated as the Legal Amazon, a 3.8 per cent increase over the previous year and an unwelcome surprise following declines of 18 per cent over the previous period.
© NOAA/Misty Niemeyer
Three North Atlantic right whales are visible at the surface on Jordans Basin. A fourth whale is visible just below the surface at lower left.
Three North Atlantic right whales are visible at the surface on Jordans Basin. A fourth whale is visible just below the surface at lower left.
The NEFSC's aerial survey team saw 44 individual right whales on Dec. 3 in the Jordan Basin area, located about 70 miles south of Bar Harbor, Maine. Weather permitting, the team regularly surveys the waters from Maine to Long Island and offshore 150 miles to the Hague Line (the U.S.-Canadian border), an area about 25,000 square nautical miles.
"We're excited because seeing 44 right whales together in the Gulf of Maine is a record for the winter months, when daily observations of three to five animals are much more common," said Tim Cole, who heads the team. "Right whales are baleen whales, and in the winter spend a lot of time diving for food deep in the water column. Seeing so many of them at the surface when we are flying over an area is a bit of luck."
The chief of Bolongdai village (Nungba), Ningkham Gangmei informed IFP over the telephone today that a mysterious outbreak of a disease has led to the death of over 12 buffalo heads. According to him, about five buffaloes were reported dead in the village prior to Christmas while another seven have died till yesterday.
He said that he had no reports of death of other types of cattle coming from the village and expressed concern that the outbreak could also affect other villages since cattle graze together.
He said that he had no reports of death of other types of cattle coming from the village and expressed concern that the outbreak could also affect other villages since cattle graze together.
A plague of grasshoppers has risen from the sands of the Spit, blanketing the dunes with the ravenous creepy-crawlies. Thousands of the insects, of various shapes, sizes and colours, are crawling over fences, plants and the Coast's beaches.
Entomologist and associate professor at Griffith University Gold Coast campus Clyde Wild said the hot weather was to blame for the sudden infestation.
"These will have been eggs laid in the sand or soil last year," he said. "They survived well because we have had a mild winter. Then, something like the bright, sunny weather we've had comes and they rise to the surface."
Entomologist and associate professor at Griffith University Gold Coast campus Clyde Wild said the hot weather was to blame for the sudden infestation.
"These will have been eggs laid in the sand or soil last year," he said. "They survived well because we have had a mild winter. Then, something like the bright, sunny weather we've had comes and they rise to the surface."
© Derek Sheppard/Kitsap Sun
A close-up view of the inch-long "snow worms" Bill Thornton found in his parent's Port Orchard backyard clearly shows the segments, which look like an earthworm. The running theory is they they're juvenile earthworms, but samples have been sent to a scientist for review.
A close-up view of the inch-long "snow worms" Bill Thornton found in his parent's Port Orchard backyard clearly shows the segments, which look like an earthworm. The running theory is they they're juvenile earthworms, but samples have been sent to a scientist for review.
Bill Thornton of Port Orchard certainly didn't, until he noticed something in his parents' backyard early Christmas morning.
"The more I looked, the more I found, and they were literally crawling up out of the snow," he said.
Worms - "snow worms," as he's started calling them - squiggled by the thousands atop the backyard snow.
That discovery launched Thornton on an odyssey as he tried to figure out what the worms are and where the came from.
© Ross Wanless BirdLife International
Introduced mice are responsible for declines in Tristan Albatross and Gough Bunting.
Introduced mice are responsible for declines in Tristan Albatross and Gough Bunting.
The mice are also affecting Gough Island's other Critically Endangered endemic species, Gough Bunting Rowettia goughensis. A recent survey of the bunting's population revealed that the population has halved within the last two decades. Now there are only an estimated 400-500 pairs left.
"We've known for a long time that the mice were killing albatross chicks in huge numbers. However, we now know that the albatrosses have suffered their worst year on record", said Richard Cuthbert, an RSPB scientist who has been researching the mice problem on Gough Island since 2000. "We also know that the mice are predators on the eggs and chicks of the Gough bunting and mice predation is the main factor behind their recent decline."
