This week in birds

This week in birds - #290

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

Little Blue Heron posing for the camera. (Photo by Bob Borders.)

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It's all very well to say that the planet is getting warmer, but, of course, the important thing is what it's like where you live. Did it get warmer or cooler in your city last year? Find out with this database from AccuWeather.

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We know that our cast off plastic has become a major pollutant of our oceans, but now it turns out that those bits of plastic can also carry infections. And those diseases are helping to destroy the coral reefs.

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It has long been known that animals living in colder regions of the world tend to have larger bodies. But does a warming planet mean that animals will adapt by getting smaller? That is one conclusion of a new study published in The Auk which theorizes that birds may become smaller as an adaptation to hotter climates.

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The latest Red List of Threatened Species lists 222 species of birds that are now considered critically endangered, putting them one step above extinction. Overall, 13 percent of the world's bird species are now considered threatened.

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At a time when most park staff were furloughed because of the government shutdown, tourists on snowmobiles went into off-limits areas at Yellowstone National Park, getting much too close to geysers including Old Faithful.

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The first wolf in a hundred years has been verified in Belgium. This is just the latest sign of the swift repopulation of Europe by the predator. Last year a breeding pack of wolves was documented in Denmark, the first in that country for 200 years.

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The endangered Red-cockaded Woodpecker is endemic in this area and nests a few miles from my home. In other parts of the South, it persists but survival is still a struggle. It is being aided in North Carolina by a program called Safe Harbor that was set up by the Fish and Wildlife Service to encourage private landowners to take steps that would benefit the little woodpecker.

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The last verified sighting of the Eastern Cougar subspecies occurred some eighty years ago and now the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has officially declared the animal extinct and has removed it from the endangered species list.

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The cabbageworm is the caterpillar of an imported butterfly commonly called the Cabbage White. It is a bane of the vegetable gardener's world. One way to discourage it has been to take advantage of what had been thought to be its territorial instincts, but new research indicates that those instincts are not as strong as had been thought. So, gardeners who eschew the use of pesticides may have to find other ways of combating the pest.

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A study in the Sacramento area has shown that songbirds, unsurprisingly I think, show a distinct preference for native oak trees rather than non-native imported trees.

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The struggle continues to save the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge from the plan to build a border wall straight through the heart of it. A rally against that plan will be held at Alamo, Texas on January 27.

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Photo by Roger Eriksson.

Piping Plovers are a small endangered shorebird and a recent Michigan State University study indicates that changes are needed in management strategies if the bird is to be saved from a growing predator population.

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The wolf population of Isle Royale National Park in Michigan now stands at two. There have been calls by the research group that studies the wolves to bring in other animals from the mainland to boost the numbers and help maintain the balance of the prey animals like the moose.

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A world registry of invasive species has been launched amid concerns that governments are not doing enough to tackle the rising threat to biodiversity of globalization. It is hoped that the new catalog – unveiled in the journal Scientific Data on Tuesday – will become a pillar of international efforts to fight extinction alongside the “red list” of endangered species.

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Elephants, it turns out, are very scared of bees and conservationists are using that fear to try to steer the animals away from potentially deadly conflicts with humans.

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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