The Nature of Things

  A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : The American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week is one that most of us have not seen and perhaps will never see. It is the largest of North America's auklet species, the Rhinoceros Auklet . It is a seabird that nests in burrows or deep crevices on rocky islands and cliffs and winters at sea and is decreasing in numbers. *~*~*~* Electricity generated by solar power is increasing across the country. Moreover, solar farms not only produce power, in many cases they produce habitats for pollinators and other wildlife . *~*~*~* Expeditions to the sunken RMS Titanic are still making discoveries . *~*~*~* More proof that everything is connected: New research has linked crashing bat populations and infant mortality . *~*~*~* Chimpanzees and other apes, just like humans, use meaningful gestures to help communicate and make their point.   *~*~*~* Flash floods can happen even in deserts. *~*~*~* According to a report in

It's always been one of my favorites of Robert Frost's poems since I first discovered it in high school. Maybe it's because I, too, was once a "swinger of birches."    Birches by Robert Frost When I see birches bend to left and right Across the lines of straighter darker trees, I like to think some boy’s been swinging them. But swinging doesn’t bend them down to stay As ice-storms do. Often you must have seen them Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning After a rain. They click upon themselves As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel. Soon the sun’s warmth makes them shed crystal shells Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust— Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away You'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen. They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load, And they seem not to break; though once they are bowed So low for long, they never right themselves: You may see their trunks arching in the woods

  A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : A Cooper's Hawk surveys my backyard looking for a possible meal. *~*~*~* Heat continues to be a big story. It is now winter in Australia and yet they just endured a day with a high temperature of 107 degrees F . Moreover, a recent study found that deaths from heat-related causes have doubled in this country in recent decades. *~*~*~* Atlantic hurricane activity has been on the quiet side this summer. *~*~*~* The world's second-largest diamond ever found has been discovered in Botswana. *~*~*~* Even in the Sahara Desert it sometimes rains . *~*~*~* In Iceland, the news continues to be of volcanic eruptions . *~*~*~* The Northern Bald Ibis was extinct in central Europe for three hundred years but with a helping hand from science , it is making a comeback. *~*~*~* The Pantanal region of Brazil is being consumed by wildfires that are made worse by ongoing drought. *~*~*~* Meanwhile, Colombia is being overrun by

  In this second entry in his Malcolm Fox series, Ian Rankin sends Fox and his Complaints team out of Edinburgh. They must go to the town of Kirkcaldy to investigate the possibility that a group of police officers has conspired to cover up the bad behavior of one of their fellow officers, Detective Paul Carter. Carter has been found guilty of sexual misconduct with women whom he had arrested. His own uncle, who is a former police officer, is the one who brought the charges against him to light. The Complaints team arrives in Kirkcaldy to find no cooperation from their fellow police officers and, in fact, obstruction of their investigation on every hand. Malcolm Fox intuits very early on in the investigation that all is not quite as it seems. There may be more here than meets the eye, and, since this is an Ian Rankin plot, of course there is. Fox goes to talk with the uncle. Soon after their conversation the uncle is found dead, at first thought to be a suicide, but things don't add

Summer is beginning to wind down in most places in the northern hemisphere although it lingers longer here in Southeast Texas. Still, late August and September fit the description of late summer. Late Summer by Jennifer Grotz Before the moths have even appeared to orbit around them, the streetlamps come on, a long row of them glowing uselessly   along the ring of garden that circles the city center, where your steps count down the dulling of daylight. At your feet, a bee crawls in small circles like a toy unwinding.   Summer specializes in time, slows it down almost to dream. And the noisy day goes so quiet you can hear the bedraggled man who visits each trash receptacle   mutter in disbelief:  Everything in the world is being thrown away! Summer lingers, but it’s about ending. It’s about how things redden and ripen and burst and come down. It’s when   city workers cut down trees, demolishing one limb at a time, spilling the crumbs of twigs and leaves all over the tablecloth of street.

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment :  A Common Gallinule enjoying a swim. *~*~*~* To prevent a climate breakdown we not only need to reduce carbon emissions; we need to restore Nature . *~*~*~* As glacial melt continues and increases, there is a  danger of a megatsunami being triggered. *~*~*~* There are at least 144 species of birds that have not been seen in at least a decade but scientists suspect (hope) they may still be out there somewhere and they have issued a BOLO for the public. *~*~*~* An Icelandic volcano has erupted for the sixth time since December.  *~*~*~* Out there in space somewhere is a "speedy little star" that may be on its way out of our galaxy. *~*~*~* And back here on Earth, there is good news from the world of endangered  California Condors : The captive breeding program at the Los Angeles Zoo has produced a record-breaking seventeen chicks this year. *~*~*~* There is renewed hope that the worst-case scenario for the me