This week in birds - #699

 A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment:

The American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week is Colombia's enigmatic Blue-billed Curassow, locally known as Paujiļ. This bird is a member of the family Cracidae, which includes a number of large, ground-dwelling tropical birds such as the guans and the chachalacas, as well as the other curassows. The turkey-sized Blue-billed Curassow is one of the most endangered birds in the Americas, a victim of overhunting and habitat loss in northern Colombia.

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This is truly alarming: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch has accumulated so many microplastics that they might be changing the color of the ocean.

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Invading sea creatures may be imperiling the unique ecosystem of the Panama Canal.

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Measles had been eliminated from the U.S. and then the vaccine skeptics gained prominence. Now outbreaks of the disease are occurring again.  

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Voyager 1 is the farthest from Earth human-made object in the universe and it is about to reach one light-day from the planet.

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In the Trans-Pecos region of West Texas a hunter has found a mammoth tusk.

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Coral reefs are dying worldwide. Can they be saved?

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Removing dams from rivers supports rewilding.

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Where did Stonehenge's six-ton altar stone really come from? The mystery remains.

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Earth is getting dimmer and the northern hemisphere is dimming faster than the southern.

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Neolithic cannibalism was apparently a common practice.

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The Supreme Court has cleared the way for the construction of the border wall between Texas and Mexico to resume in the Big Bend area, the ecosystem be damned. 

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Recent research gives evidence that cannabis has been used by humans for at least 2,800 years.

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A patch of wintergreens, one of the U.K.'s rarest flowers, has been saved from falling into the sea. 

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Newly discovered Ice Age rock art in Catalonian caves is rewriting that region's prehistory.

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The mercury-rich red paint that the Maya used to decorate their pottery, temple walls, and other things may have accidentally poisoned them.

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Scientists are learning how octopuses manage to squeeze themselves through tiny holes.

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Indonesia's Raja Ampat Islands have been saved but now conservationists are faced with the task of maintaining it. 

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Giant tortoises have been gone from the Galpagos Floreana Island for more than 150 years but now conservationists are returning them to the island. 

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Sealed for nearly 2,000 years, a wooden wardrobe from Pompeii has recently been opened.

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A maintenance worker found a four-foot long python in a trash can in Glendale, California. An animal control officer transported it to Pasadena Humane.

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Here's some good news: The critically endangered Devils Hole pupfish population is on the rebound.

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A baby walrus, rescued from a remote beach in northwestern Alaska is now enjoying life in Florida at SeaWorld Orlando. 

Veterans Day

May I wish a very happy Veterans Day to all who have served. In my family, that would mean my father, a World War II veteran long gone now, and my husband who is now enjoying his Veterans Day tradition of watching war movies with our younger daughter. She's always up for spending a day with Dad, her favorite person. I hope all veterans have such a person who loves them and wants to spend the day with them. 

Poetry Sunday: Beyond the Red River by Thomas McGrath

I can't seem to get my schedule worked out lately, but here,
better late than never, is a Sunday poem for you. Enjoy!

Beyond the Red River

by Thomas McGrath

The birds have flown their summer skies to the south,
And the flower-money is drying in the banks of bent grass

Which the bumble bee has abandoned. We wait for a winter lion,

Body of ice-crystals and sombrero of dead leaves.

A month ago, from the salt engines of the sea,

A machinery of early storms rolled toward the holiday houses

Where summer still dozed in the pool-side chairs, sipping

An aging whiskey of distances and departures.

Now the long freight of autumn goes smoking out of the land.

My possibles are all packed up, but still I do not leave.

I am happy enough here, where Dakota drifts wild in the universe,

Where the prairie is starting to shake in the surf of the winter dark.

This week in birds - #698

 A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment: 

This is the Ruffed Grouse, the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week. This bantam-sized member of the grouse/pheasant family is one of North America's twelve native grouse species. It is non-migratory and prefers forest habitats. The Ruffed Grouse's numbers are increasing and its greatest threats are human hunters and the disappearance of forests. Its conservation status at present is of least concern.

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In Washington last weekend a memorial was dedicated to the veterans of Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm, military operations of 1990 and 1991. The memorial draws its inspiration from a desert oasis with walls reminiscent of sand dunes and a shaded grove with trees and bubbling water.

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A dinosaur fossil that has been sitting in a London museum since 1924 has finally been given a name - Invictibellatrix amberina which translates as "unconquered female warrior."

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A well-preserved Zapotec tomb has been discovered in Mexico and is the most important archaeological find in that country in a decade.

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A new genetic study suggests that native Hawaiians descend from a group of "ultravoyagers" who sailed about 4,400 miles from Easter Island.

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Another set of voyagers, monarch butterflies, is beginning to arrive at their overwintering region in Mexico.

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A 4,000-year-old mud brick found in the rubble of a Bronze Age house in western Turkey contains the imprint of a dog's paw, testifying to the long relationship between our two species.

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Research on the once-great Mayan metropolis of Caracol in the forest of Belize is debunking much of what had been believed about that Mesoamerican civilization. 

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The Bangka slow loris, a venomous primate of Southeast Asia, had been thought to be extinct but it turns out it was hiding in plain sight. 

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This is an illustration of the so-called "hell chicken," an ancient dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous period that ate mostly fruit.

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Crows can make decisions based on visual information twice as fast as humans can. Here are six proven ways to attract these very smart covids to your yard. 

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A stone found in the Sahara turned out to be a 4.1-billion-year-old meteorite from Mars, the oldest ever found.

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An Italian farmer found some unknown seeds in his attic and planted them. They came up and turned out to be from an ancient grain.

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An analysis of Inca mummies of sacrificed children showed that they were given coca leaves, corn beer, and an ayahuasca compound before death. In other words, they were drugged.

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The giant bats of Madagascar are shrinking in size and human hunting may be to blame.

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Here are pictures of the beautiful red rocks of Sedona, Arizona.

Poetry Sunday: Be Glad Your Nose is on Your Face by Jack Prelutsky

Here's a fun poem for you by a poet I had never heard of. He's an American, born in Brooklyn in 1940 and he has had a varied career encompassing several different kinds of activities. But his true profession seems to be that of poet. See what you think of his work.

Be Glad Your Nose Is on Your Face

by Jack Prelutsky

Be glad your nose is on your face,
not pasted on some other place,

for if it were where it is not,
you might dislike your nose a lot.

Imagine if your precious nose
were sandwiched in between your toes,
that clearly would not be a treat,
for you’d be forced to smell your feet.

Your nose would be a source of dread
were it attached atop your head,
it soon would drive you to despair,
forever tickled by your hair.

Within your ear, your nose would be
an absolute catastrophe,
for when you were obliged to sneeze,
your brain would rattle from the breeze.

Your nose, instead, through thick and thin,
remains between your eyes and chin,
not pasted on some other place—
be glad your nose is on your face!

No "This week in birds"

For those who came here looking for my weekly feature "This week in birds" I apologize. I did not have a chance to complete that post this week but it will return next week. And may I just express my appreciation for my faithful readers who missed the feature and questioned its absence. I do that post for you and barring any unforeseen circumstances it will be here in its usual spot next Saturday. Thank you once again.

Poetry Sunday: Candy Corn by Thaddeus Tarpey

As a child, whenever Halloween came around on the calendar, and cries of "Trick or treat!" rang out, I always hoped for a treat of candy corn, my favorite autumn sweet. I confess I like it still. 

Apparently Thaddeus Tarpey liked it, too. He liked it so much that he wrote a poem for it!   

Candy Corn

by Thaddeus Tarpey

When the Autumn sun warms dying stalks
Of corn with unkempt tassel locks.
The earth turns from green to brown,
Candy corn comes to town.

A cackling witch stokes the ember
Smoky spirits escape the timber.
The leaves in trees turn an amber hue,
Candy Corn, I yearn for you.

Across my path a shadow creeps,
Into day, nighttime seeps.
My dreams turn to sugary storms.
Candy corn, keep me warm.

Before I die and decompose,
Let me warm by your coals.
Orange, white, yellow form,
The wonderment of Candy corn.