Nature

I'm a sucker for a good animal story. So naturally this headline from today's Quad-City Times got my attention: "It's a bird, it's a plane...it's a dog?"  Bill Wundram writes about a little Pomeranian named Sadie who took a wild two-mile ride in a great horned owl's talons—and lived to bark about it.

If you hear croaking coming from your Christmas tree, turn on the lights and prepare the Orajel. As cute as he may be, and as sweet his song, the camouflaged frog ornamenting your branch will need to die before he hops a ride up the chimney with Santa.

Up until the last hours of the two-week United Nations Climate Change Talks, it looked like attendees weren’t going to come to any agreement, but in the end they hashed out and agreed to "note" the Copenhagen Accord, a three-page, non-binding plan to curb global greenhouse gas emissions. While it certainly isn’t the ambitious, legally binding agreement many were hoping for, it might still have some effect in reducing the amount of carbon being spewed into the atmosphere.

Farallon National Wildlife Refuge, courtesy US FWS
For most of us, it can be difficult to get a daily nature fix. But thanks to cutting-edge technology, we can see, in real time, hummingbirds in South America and wolves in Minnesota. Here are 10 web cams from around the globe that give a glimpse into the daily routines of animals from bald eagles to ants to otters.

Is there anyone left in the public spotlight who doesn’t cheat on their supposed one and only? It may not seem like it with so many formerly acclaimed celebs, sports stars, and politicians—from Kobe Bryant and Eliot Spitzer to David Letterman and now Tiger Woods—going up in smoke with the fiery wreckage of sex scandals. What is going on? Could this rash of infidelities be linked to climate change?

Well boys, I’m afraid the evidence is still a bit thin. Unless, perhaps, you invoke the saltmarsh sparrow.

For the past seven years, University of Connecticut ornithologist Chris Elphick and his team of field biologists have been wading through the muck of coastal Connecticut marshes to spy on about half the world’s remaining population of these little grey and brown birds. The saltmarsh sparrows (formerly saltmarsh sharp-tailed sparrow) are unique among songbirds because they are not monogamous. Instead, they mate with multiple partners. In fact, these two-timers even continue the charade when kids come along, with females often tending the nests of several different dads.

Researchers theorize that the sparrows’ risqué behavior...

Eastern Towhee
Listen to him sing "Drink Your Teeeeeea!"
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What's got eight legs and builds its house out of coconut shells? No, not a spider with a hankering for milk. It's Indonesia's veined octopus, and it's the first invertebrate on record to use tools, according to an article in Current Biology.

Calling all birders! Whether you're a feeder-watcher or a professional ornithologist, your love of birds can help conserve avian species when you take part in the Christmas Bird Count. Now in its 110th year, the annual event relies on citizen scientist throughout the Americas to tally the birds they see over a three week period. Sign up here, and click 'read more' to find out how the data collected have revealed how climate change is affecting birds.

Eldrick Tont Woods, better known as Tiger, is obviously into chicks, but the golf courses he plays on aren’t great for birds. The sport is laced with birding references, from the lingo to the fowl players see in the trees (and sometimes in the grasses), yet building, landscaping, and maintaining a course can be as harmful to the environment as Woods’s infidelity has been to his marriage.

Jaguars, secretive, strong animals, often elude view by humans. Despite that—or perhaps, partially because of it—this feline sits on a pedestal, worshipped by the Mayans, the Incas and many other groups.

In his new book, The Jaguar’s Shadow: Searching for a Mythic Cat, journalist and author Richard Mahler explores the relationship between us and this cat.

We’re pleased to have Mahler guest-blogging on The Perch, starting this Thursday, and finishing next week. To read more about what he'll cover, click here.