Did you know that Hekman Library subscribes to the Birds of North America database from Cornell Lab of Ornithology? Professor Darren Proppe in Biology is our bird specialist on campus; his research centers around the effect of human-gednerated noise on songbird behavior and demographics. Dr. Proppe and other faculty in Biology are some of the top users of this database.

This week, the e-newsletter from the ornithology lab focuses on "the cutest owl in North America," the Northern Saw-whet Owl. (Pictured on the right). For decades these owls were scarcely known at all. "Then came Project Owlnet, a grassroots banding program that discovered the tiny mousers..." See Owlnet veteran Scott Weidensaul, as he takes you out for a night of owl banding.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology reports that in North America, we've lost 1 in 4 breeding birds since 1970. Nearly 3 billion birds are gone across virtually all groups of birds in the U.S. and Canada! Check out the story and see what you can do to reverse this downward trend.