This week in birds

This week in birds - #186

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

"Snow birds" is what we called them when I was growing up because they usually showed up with the first snow of winter. They are Dark-eyed Juncos, a very pretty member of the sparrow family. No snow and no juncos so far here in the subtropical South, but I photographed this one a few years ago on an autumn visit to Rocky Mountain National Park.

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The Christmas Bird Count is underway. It started on December 14 and runs through January 5. The is the 116th consecutive year that it will have been conducted, making it perhaps the oldest of the Citizen Science projects that are now so popular. It is the forerunner of projects like the Great Backyard Bird Count and Project FeederWatch.

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2015 has been a memorable year in the world of science. Here is a list of some of the most significant scientific events of the year.

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One important scientific study of 2015 has uncovered the origins of modern birds. The DNA-based work found that birds emerged in what is now South America some 90 million years ago and radiated extensively around the time of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event that killed off the non-avian dinosaurs.

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Last month was the warmest November on record worldwide since records have been kept. It seems a near certainty that 2015 will be the warmest year on record.

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One important way that birds and mammals adapt to heat and cold is through size, but there are other tools in the animals' repertoire that they are able to utilize.

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Here are some stunningly beautiful pictures of the Painted Bunting that has been hanging out in Prospect Park in Brooklyn this fall.

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Hawaii's endemic birds are facing so many challenges, not least of which is climate change, that one despairs as to whether any of them will long survive.

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The Tricolored Blackbird, once the most common songbird in California, is being considered for protection under the state's Endangered Species Act because of its rapidly diminishing numbers.

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The Red-breasted Nuthatch is one of the winter migrants that we always hope to get here as a visitor for the season. I haven't seen or heard any this year but hope springs eternal. "Union Bay Watch" blog has an appreciation of the wonderful little bird.

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One of the marks of intelligence in an animal is its ability to use tools. Well, birds are no slackers in this regard. A recently discovered example is the Greater Vasa Parrot which uses pebbles to get food.

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Darwin's Medium Ground-Finch in the Galapagos Islands is being threatened by an invasive parasitic fly.

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Hummingbirds generate a lot of heat with their constant activity. A new infrared video shows how they are able to dissipate that heat.

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In addition to the fact that it has been a mass murderer of birds and flying mammals, the Ivanpah Solar Project in the Mojave Desert has not been able to generate enough power to meet the terms of its contracts with Pacific Gas and Electric. It now risks default.

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Argentina is setting up additional protected areas for its native Magellanic Penguins.

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The only effects that we in this area have seen so far from this season's much-vaunted El Niño is a very wet autumn, but the effects are expected to intensify over the next three months. Who knows? We may yet get some frost!

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Around the backyard:

Things continue to be unusually quiet around the backyard feeders. American Goldfinches are present in good numbers but not visiting the feeders yet. They continue feeding on crape myrtle seeds. News reached me recently that there are Pine Siskins in the area! This is quite unexpected. I'm hoping some of them will reach my yard before the winter is over.

Pine Siskins at one of my feeders on their last visit here in the winter of 2013.

Poetry Sunday: Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver

How about we share another Mary Oliver poem? After all, you can never have too many of those. In this one, the poet seems to acknowledge that it is often hard to simply live in and enjoy the moment, perhaps because we are afraid it can't last. She urges us to give in to that moment and fully experience the joy. Although "much can never be redeemed, still, life has some possibility left." Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is no...

Poetry Sunday: Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney

My mother was a farm wife and a prodigious canner. She canned fruit and vegetables from the garden, even occasionally meat. But the best thing that she canned, in my opinion, was blackberry jam. Even as I type those words my mouth waters! Of course, before she could make that jam, somebody had to pick the blackberries. And that somebody was quite often named Dorothy. I think Seamus Heaney might have spent some time among the briars plucking those delicious black fruits as well, so he would have known that "Once off the bush the fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour." They don't keep; you have to get that jam made in a hurry! Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney Late August, given heavy rain and sun For a full week, the blackberries would ripen. At first, just one, a glossy purple clot Among others, red, green, hard as a knot. You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust ...

Poetry Sunday: Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman

You probably remember poet Amanda Gorman from her appearance at the inauguration of President Biden. She read her poem "The Hill We Climb" on that occasion. After the senseless slaughter in Uvalde this week, she was inspired to write another poem which was published in The New York Times. It seemed perfect for the occasion and so I stole it in order to feature it here, just in case you didn't get a chance to read it in the Times . Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman Everything hurts, Our hearts shadowed and strange, Minds made muddied and mute. We carry tragedy, terrifying and true. And yet none of it is new; We knew it as home, As horror, As heritage. Even our children Cannot be children, Cannot be. Everything hurts. It’s a hard time to be alive, And even harder to stay that way. We’re burdened to live out these days, While at the same time, blessed to outlive them. This alarm is how we know We must be altered — That we must differ or die, That we must triumph or try. ...

The Nature of Things

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