A solar-powered airplane finished crossing the United States on Saturday, landing in New York City after flying over the Statue of Liberty during its historic bid to circle the globe, the project team said. The spindly, single-seat experimental aircraft, dubbed Solar Impulse 2, arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport at about 4 a.m. local time after it took off about five hours beforehand at Lehigh Valley International Airport in Pennsylvania, the team reported on the airplane's website. Such a pleasure to land in New York! For the 14th time we celebrate sustainability," said the project's co-founder Andre Borschberg on Twitter after flying over the city and the Statue of Liberty during the 14th leg of the trip around the globe. The Swiss team flying the aircraft in a campaign to build support for clean energy technologies hopes eventually to complete its circumnavigation in Abu Dhabi, where the journey began in March 2015. The solar cr...
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| Puffins |
Atlantic puffins, European turtle doves, Slavonian grebes and pochards are on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species for birds. This means the number of UK species on the critical list has doubled to eight. Puffins are vulnerable to pollution and declining food sources, ecologists say. Another 14 UK species are considered to be "near threatened". Martin Harper, conservation director with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), said the "global wave of extinction is now lapping at our shores". "The erosion of the UK's wildlife is staggering and this is reinforced when you talk about puffin and turtle dove now facing the same level of extinction threat as African elephant and lion, and being more endangered than the humpback whale," he said.Although the Atlantic puffin population is still in the millions, fewer young birds are surviving to breed.
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| Turtle dove |
Reasons include a recent decline in the population of puffins' prey, such as the sand eel, and vulnerability to pollution such as oil spills, according to advisory body the Joint Nature Conservation Committee. They have been listed as vulnerable to extinction, the lowest of three categories behind critically endangered and endangered. Shetland has been listed as the best destination for watching puffins, according to a National Geographic list of the top 10 places to see wildlife.A decline in turtle dove numbers across Europe of more than 30% in the past 16 years has also made it vulnerable to extinction.
The decline in the UK has been particularly high, with more than nine out of every ten birds being lost since the 1970s, according to conservation group Birdlife. This is partly due to an as yet unexplained decline in the number of breeding pairs, the RSPB believes.The migratory species also flies over the Mediterranean where, especially in Malta, there is a tradition of spring shooting birds. The country recently rejected a ban on hunting birds in a referendum. The decline in Slavonian grebes in the UK is in part down to a reduction in successful breeding pairs, although conservationists say specific reasons for this are unclear.
Hunting and habitat destruction are thought to be to blame for the reduction in pochard populations. Other UK birds that have been added to the near-threatened list include oystercatchers, lapwings, the curlew sandpiper and bar-tailed godwit.
They join species already listed such as the black-tailed godwit and curlew.
Critically endangered UK bird species
- European turtle-dove
- Slavonian grebe
- Pochard
- Atlantic puffin
- Balearic shearwater
- Aquatic warbler
- Long-tailed duck
- Velvet scoter
Near-threatened UK bird species
- Razorbill
- Meadow pipit
- Sooty shearwater
- Red knot
- Curlew sandpiper
- Eurasian oystercatcher
- Bar-tailed godwit
- Black-tailed godwit
- Red kite
- Eurasian curlew
- Common eider
- Dartford warbler
- Redwing
- Northern lapwing
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