Every bird watcher and nature observer has his or her "lists." Here are mine for Birds, Insects, Mammals, Plants, Reptiles, and Crustaceans, complete with pull down menus.
BIRDS
Categorized by genus/species, placed chronologically by common name
American Coot
American Crow
American Flamingo*
American Goldfinch
American Kestrel
American Robin
American Tree Sparrow
American White Pelican
Bald Eagle
Baltimore Oriole
Barn Swallow
Belted Kingfisher
Black-Capped Chickadee
Black Vulture*
Blue Jay
Blue-Winged Teal
Bobwhite
Brown Creeper
Brown-Headed Cowbird
Brown Thrasher
Bufflehead
Canada Goose
Canvasback
Cedar Waxwing
Chipping Sparrow
Common Grackle
Common Goldeneye
Common Redpoll
Cooper's Hawk
Dark-Eyed Junco
Double-Breasted Cormorant
Downy Woodpecker
Eastern Bluebird
Eastern Goldfinch - See American Goldfinch
Eastern Kingbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Eastern Phoebe
Eastern Towhee
Eurasian Coot*
European Starling
Fox Sparrow
Golden-Crowned Kinglet
Gray Catbird
Graylag Goose
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Greater Flamingo*
Hairy Woodpecker
Harlequin Duck
Hermit Thrush
Herring Gull
Horned Lark
House Finch
House Sparrow
House Wren
Indigo Bunting
Killdeer
Lesser Scaup
Lincoln's Sparrow
Mallard (Domestic)
Mallard (Wild)
Mourning Dove
Northern Cardinal
Northern Flicker
Northern Rough-Winged Swallow
Northern Shoveler
Orange-Crowned Warbler
Palm Warbler
Red-Bellied Woodpecker
Red-Breasted Nuthatch
Red-Headed Woodpecker
Red-Tailed Hawk
Red-Winged Blackbird
Ring-Billed Gull
Ring-Necked Duck
Rock Pigeon
Ruby-Crowned Kinglet
Scarlet Tanager
Solitary Sandpiper
Song Sparrow
Spotted Sandpiper
Swamp Sparrow
Tufted Titmouse
Turkey Vulture
White-Breasted Nuthatch
White-Crowned Sparrow
White-Throated Sparrow
Wild Turkey
Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker
Yellow-Rumped Warbler
INSECTS, ARACHNIDS, MYRIAPODS & GASTROPODS
Categorized by family, placed chronologically by common name
The corn is ground, mixed with water, and heated; added enzymes convert the starch into sugars. In a fermentation tank, yeast gradually turns the sugars into alcohol, which is separated from the water by distillation. The leftover, known as distillers’ grains, is fed to the cows, and some of the wastewater, high in nitrogen, is applied to fields as a fertilizer.
The process also gives off large amounts of carbon dioxide, and that’s where ethanol’s green label starts to brown. Most ethanol plants burn natural gas or, increasingly, coal to create the steam that drives the distillation, adding fossil- fuel emissions to the carbon dioxide emitted by the yeast. Growing the corn also requires nitrogen fertilizer, made with natural gas, and heavy use of diesel farm machinery. Some studies of the energy balance of corn ethanol–the amount of fossil energy needed to make ethanol versus the energy it produces–suggest that ethanol is a loser’s game, requiring more carbon-emitting fossil fuel than it displaces. Others give it a slight advantage. But however the accounting is done, corn ethanol is no greenhouse panacea.
“Biofuels are a total waste and misleading us from getting at what we really need to do: conservation,” says Cornell University’s David Pimentel, who is one of ethanol’s harshest critics. “This is a threat, not a service. Many people are seeing this as a boondoggle.”
Exactly. Conserve more, waste less, pollute less. And if we’re going to look to a “fuel” to be the environmental savior, let’s find one that is actually good for the environment.
This blog is about: Iowa, Illinois, Midwest, United States, nature, wildlife, animals, birds, ornithology, insects, bugs, entomology, Davenport, Bettendorf, Rock Island, Moline, Quad, City, Cities
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