This week in birds

This week in birds - #187

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

American Goldfinches are finally visiting my black oil sunflower seed feeder in my front yard. They haven't started hitting the nyger seed feeders in the backyard yet, but this is typical. They usually start with the sunflower seeds and later move to the nyger. I still haven't seen any Pine Siskins in my yard, although several people have reported them in the area.

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In that "galaxy far, far away," apparently there are birds! Audubon has helpfully created a field guide to them.

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Noah Strycker, the birder who gave a year of his life to do a worldwide "Big Year," finished 2015 having seen and recorded more than 6,000 species of birds. Think about that for a minute. That's in a world where the total known bird species number a bit over 10,000. Noah's final count was 6,042.

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Sad news regarding the oldest banded Bald Eagle in the country. The bird was struck by a car and killed in New York while apparently feeding on a road-killed rabbit. Band #629-03142 was hatched in Minnesota in 1977 while the future of Bald Eagles was still very much in doubt. They were on the Endangered Species List. He lived to see the triumphant recovery of his species and helped contribute to that recovery.

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The U.S. Congress did something positive for the environment! Stop the presses! Just before they left town in December, they easily passed a bill banning microbeads in health and beauty products. Microbeads are tiny bits of plastic used as abrasives that eventually wind up in our waterways and do significant harm to the environment.

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A recently published study of American Kestrels found that those that stayed on their home territories and did not migrate south in winter nested earlier than birds that did migrate.

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Japan has designated four new or expanded areas of protection for birds. One of the birds that will benefit is the extremely endangered Spoon-billed Sandpiper.

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Mistletoe, that parasitic plant beloved by Christmas party celebrants, is a valuable plant for some species of birds. They eat the berries that it produces and some use it as nest material.

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Two bees or not two bees; that is the question. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is evaluating two bees, the blue Calamintha bee and the rusty patched bumblebee, to determine if they need protection under the Endangered Species Act. If they don't get the protection, they may not be two bees for much longer. The Franklin's bumblebee became extinct during the time that the FWS was "evaluating" it.

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The sacred bird of the Maya and Aztecs, the Resplendent Quetzal, is facing an extinction risk due to loss of habitat in Central America.

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Humans! I'll never understand them. Why would anyone do this? Some person or persons unknown killed some Laysan Albatrosses and destroyed nests and eggs at Kaena Point Natural Area Reserve in Hawaii. One can only hope that the person or persons responsible are caught and punished to the full extent of the law.

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Funnily enough, Americans are more willing to support offshore drilling if it is far, far away from where they live. Gee, I wonder why that would be?

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The majestic Andean Condor has become all but extinct in Colombia, but conservationists are making an effort to repopulate the skies of the country with the iconic bird. Two birds from Chile have recently been brought to a zoo in Medellin as the first step in the plan to reintroduce them in Colombia.

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As changes in climate have made it more difficult for them to access their normal diet, polar bears are becoming more and more dependent upon predation of nesting birds and their eggs.

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A solar power plant on the Atacama in Chile offers hope for a constant source of clean energy but the facility has run into difficulty in regard to its finances.

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Temperatures in the Arctic have recently risen above freezing. In other words, it has been warmer at the North Pole than in some areas of the lower 48 states.

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Finally, take time to observe the birds in 2016. They are all around you, so you don't have to go out of your way to do it, and as Yogi Berra once said, (or should have) "You can see a lot by just looking!" Happy birding!

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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