This week in birds

This week in birds - #391

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

A Northern Shoveler pair basks in the bright sun of a mild winter day in a South Texas wetland.

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Today a federal judge in Idaho voided nearly one million acres of oil and gas leases on federal lands in the West. He ruled that the federal government had limited public input on those leases and that that was "arbitrary and capricious". The leasing policy had been challenged by environmental groups trying to protect the habitat of the Greater Sage-Grouse.

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Also this week, conservation groups filed a legal petition challenging the federal government's plan to allow 3,500 new gas wells in southwestern Wyoming. The gas wells would block the migration route of pronghorn antelopes, a route they have traveled annually for six thousand years. The petition alleges that the wells were approved without properly analyzing potential harm to the antelope and to the Greater Sage-Grouse that shares the pronghorn's habitat.

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JP Morgan Chase has announced that it will stop approving loans for companies pursuing new fossil fuel drilling in the Arctic Circle. This follows a similar move announced by Goldman Sachs. The financial institutions have received pressure from Democratic lawmakers and environmental groups to take this action.

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The abnormally warm Alaska summers are resulting in changes in coastal ecosytems that are causing fish populations to migrate and some dieoffs of seabird populations. Moreover, warming waters are making shellfish toxic, disrupting a way of life for Native Alaskans who have earned their living by fishing.

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A story that went viral regarding a toy poodle being carried off by a hawk in Pennsylvania is most likely a mistake. The dog (who has been found and reunited with his owner) weighs 6.5 pounds and even the largest raptors in the area can only carry around 4 pounds.

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California's new law regulating groundwater goes into effect this year. It will have a significant impact on the state's agricultural practices and on rural communities and endangered wetlands. The regulation was put into place in response to concerns about the effects of drought and additional drilling of wells to get water.

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More dam removal this time in Delaware. So far, one dam blocking the migration route to the spawning grounds of several species of fish has been removed on Brandywine Creek and plans are for all ten of the remaining dams to be removed or modified over the next three years.

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The problem of electrocution killing raptors is being tackled in New Jersey. That has become one of the top killers of Bald Eagles there.

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Want to save the world? Then you might just try planting some native plants in your yard. It will help the insects on which the survival of the food chain depends.

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A major effort to expand development of Canada's oil sands has collapsed amid investor concerns over oil's future and political fault lines between economic and environmental priorities.

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The devastating fires in Australia have been followed by heavy rains and flooding compounding the extremes of environmental disasters.

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For the second straight year, the number of Monarch butterflies wintering in the West is critically low.

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Los Angeles' mountain lions are penned in by the freeways and facing extinction but a new wildlife crossing offers hope that they may be able to escape their prison.

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Raptors that feed from higher in the food chain have higher mercury levels in their bodies.

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Are whales' sense of direction disrupted by sunspots? There is some evidence that this may be the case and that it may contribute to some of the beaching incidents.

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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