This week in birds

This week in birds - #298

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

The Cedar Waxwings are still with us. They are always just about the last of our winter visitors to leave us in the spring.

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Americans were not at all amused by the Department of the Interior's plans to dramatically hike entrance fees for our most popular national parks. The agency has received more than 100,000 comments from the public regarding the scheme and they are almost unanimous in their opposition. The department has decided to reconsider the plan.

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In other Interior Department news, Susan Combs, a former Texas official who compared proposed endangered species listings to "incoming scud missiles," has been selected by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke as acting secretary for fish, wildlife, and parks. As Texas comptroller, Combs fought the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service repeatedly over its attempts to enforce the Endangered Species Act in the state. In a 2015 report, the Austin American-Statesman showed how Combs worked to remove endangered protections for a native state songbird, the Golden-cheeked Warbler, claiming that its listing hurt military readiness. In her new position, she will have power over enforcement of the Endangered Species Act.

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The drafts of a long-awaited scientific report on sea level rise and storm surge and its effects on public lands has had every mention of humans' role in causing climate change deleted by National Park Service officials, contradicting Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s vow to Congress that his department is not censoring science.

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"Bug Eric" tells us all about some "odd little weevils."

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In early March, a team of scientists and amateur naturalists undertook a project called Border BioBlitz. Their aim was to inventory species along the U.S./Mexico border. Over 500 miles on either side of the border, they counted 833 species in 11 different locations. The bottom line is, the border region is a treasure of biological diversity, but it is also fragile and its ecosystem could be easily upset by human development.

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Global warming is causing spring to arrive early and autumn to come late in many places, and not all species are adapting at the same rate. Here are five plants and animals that have been confused by the changes and are having difficulty acclimating to those changes.

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More on the effects of climate change on migratory birds: New research just published shows how the warming climate can impact critical food supplies necessary to the birds' survival.

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A poet famously wrote that "only God can make a tree," but what precisely makes a tree a tree? How do they differ from other plants? It turns out that scientists are having some difficulty in deciding just how a tree should be defined.

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It's not just land birds whose life cycles may be upset by the changing climate; seabirds also face problems in adapting as warming oceans may put them out of sync with their normal prey.

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Did you ever wonder how insects learned to fly? Probably not. We take so much for granted, don't we? But insects were the first things to fly on the planet and scientists are engaged in research to figure out just how that happened, how they developed wings.

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The Florida Scrub Jay is a threatened species. Researchers engaged in mapping its family tree and understanding its genetic diversity are hoping that the knowledge gained will yield insights into how the bird can best be protected.

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Freshwater mussels help to filter and clean the water in streams and other bodies of water, so the fact that many of them are going extinct is very bad news for species that rely on them to keep the water clean.

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The Common Tern is the most widespread tern species in North America, but its breeding colonies in interior North America have been on the decline for decades despite conservation efforts. The problems may lie in the migration route. The birds have important migratory staging areas in the inland U.S. and along the Gulf of Mexico and could be especially vulnerable to environmental change in that region.

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The latest research confirms that the underwater melting of Antarctic ice is far greater than had been thought. The base of the ice around the South Pole shrank by 1,463 square kilometers between 2010 and 2016.

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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