Birds in the News 71 (v2n22) is overflowing with avian news and photos.

Speaking of birds, have you seen this tidbit about a four-legged duckling?  “A rare mutation has left eight-day-old Stumpy with two extra legs behind the two he moves around on.”  You can see a photo of the little guy in that article.

I’m thrilled to see this: “A federal appeals court ruled Friday that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service violated the Endangered Species Act when it approved a 22,000-acre logging project that affects northern spotted owl habitat in southern Oregon. In a case dating from 2001, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court ruling that would allow logging based on an ‘incidental take’ statement estimating how many owls might be killed. Any landowners, companies, state or local governments with projects that might incidentally harm — or ‘take’ — wildlife that is listed as endangered or threatened must first obtain an incidental take permit from the Fish and Wildlife Service. But the appeals court found the statement supporting the permit for about 75 proposed timber sales in the Rogue River Basin had no scientific foundation, lacked a specific estimate of how many owls would be killed by the logging, and had no ‘trigger’ for keeping track of whether too many owls were being killed.”

Don’t miss Grand Rounds, vol. 3 no. 22 for all the best of the medical blogosphere.  This edition honors the forthcoming Oscars by bashing the awards ceremony (not enough, I think) and theming the entries according to movies nominated for Academy Awards this year.