The Nature of Things

  A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : This fantastically colored creature is the very aptly named Shining Sunbeam , also called the Copper-winged Hummingbird , a large, conspicuous hummingbird whose habitat includes both slopes of the Andes , from Colombia south through Ecuador and Peru. Its population is believed to be stable.  *~*~*~* In his last days in office, the current president is doing what he can to protect climate funding from the depredations of the incoming president. *~*~*~* The deadly Los Angeles wildfires  affect wildlife as well as people . Here are some  ways to help them . *~*~*~* "Guerrilla rewilding" is now a thing and is apparently responsible for the recent release of four lynx in the Scottish Highlands. All have now been safely recaptured . *~*~*~*                                     This little cutie is the Danish-Swedish farm d...

Since I first became acquainted with Robert Frost's poetry in high school, I've often taken comfort in it over the years. Whenever the world seems particularly fractious, as it has recently, I turn again to many of his poems that I love. There are two of Frost's in particular that are meaningful for me - "Birches" and "The Tuft of Flowers." Today, "The Tuft of Flowers" seems especially appropriate - a reminder that we are all in this together whether we work together or apart. The Tuft of Flowers by Robert Frost I went to turn the grass once after one Who mowed it in the dew before the sun.   The dew was gone that made his blade so keen Before I came to view the levelled scene.   I looked for him behind an isle of trees; I listened for his whetstone on the breeze.   But he had gone his way, the grass all mown, And I must be, as he had been,—alone,   ‘As all must be,’ I said within my heart, ‘Whether they work together or apart.’   But as I said...