All of Glenn Dreger’s Advent Calendar Photos
The 2019 Glenn Dreger advent calendar gallery of photos for your enjoyment. Click on each one to enlarge. And now some bonus photos. This post requires some additional work.
Continue reading →Ancient Insects Ate Dinosaur Feathers
The new paper presents the earliest known evidence of insects feeding on feathers, and the authors suggest that this type of parasite evolved during or before the middle of the Cretaceous period, which occurred 145–66 million years ago. Ancient lice ate dinosaur feathers, similar to how modern-day lice eat bird feathers, according to a study published yesterday (December 10) in Nature Communications. Researchers led by Taiping Gao and Dong Ren at Capital Normal University in China, discovered the insect on dinosaur feathers fossilized in 100-million-year-old amber collected in northern Myanmar. The … Continue reading →
Granny Killer Whales Pass Along Wisdom and Food To Their Grandchildren
A new study published in Science is the first direct evidence in nonhuman animals of the “grandmother hypothesis.” The idea posits that females of some species live long after they stop reproducing to provide extra care for their grandchildren.
Continue reading →Why Do Woodpeckers Excavate Cavities In Fall?
This article and podcast from Audubon explains why woodpeckers make cavities in trees during fall, even though they are not nesting at that time. A familiar sound of spring: a woodpecker hard at work, carving out a nest hole in a tree trunk [woodpecker chiseling a nest hole]. Here the female will lay her eggs and the pair will raise their young. When you’re lucky, you can hear young woodpeckers, like these Pileated Woodpeckers begging from within the trunk. But now that fall has arrived, we may hear an excavating … Continue reading →
Mandarin Duck Spotted Again In Burnaby
Full story from an article on November 3, 2019. The Mandarin Duck has appeared again in the lower mainland. It was also seen in 2018. The Mandarin Duck, as its known, has been causing a stir in the media lately, and among birdwatchers, since it is not native to North America. On October 31, a mandarin duck spotted in Central Park merited a New York Times article, and similarly this week in Vancouver, Global BC shared the word that at least one Mandarin Duck has been seen in the region, in Burnaby Lake … Continue reading →
Wild Wednesday
Wildsafe BC produces videos on wildlife, some of which will be featured on the KNC site from time to time: Thanks to Frank Ritcey for his ongoing work with Wildsafe.
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