This week in birds

This week in birds - #435

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

Willet photographed at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge on the Texas coast.

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President Joe Biden was inaugurated on January 20 and immediately issued a flurry of executive orders several of which made environmentalists who have spent the last four years fighting a holding action very happy. As he had pledged, his first act was to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord. He also rescinded the construction permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which was a bit of a poke in the eye for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who has been a staunch defender of the project. He also directed federal agencies to review all the previous administration's decisions over the past four years that were "harmful to public health, damaging to the environment, unsupported by the best available science, or otherwise not in the national interest.” Reversing those harmful decisions will take time, but a start has been made.

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President Biden also paused drilling for fossil fuels on public lands including the leasing of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, an action which had been a last-minute effort of the previous administration.

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It will probably come as no great surprise to you to learn that the same lawmakers who denied the legitimacy of the November 3 election are also deniers of human-caused climate change. They live in a fact-free bubble.

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A pair of Whooping Cranes at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge on the Texas coast.

The Whooping Cranes that winter on the Texas coast have benefited considerably from conservation efforts in the area.

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Another reversal of the prior administration's policies that urgently needs to take place is a strengthening of the Endangered Species Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, both of which were seriously curtailed in the last four years.

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Our new president has an ambitious plan to tackle the problem of climate change on many fronts and he may find that the public is now more aware of the problem than it was ten years ago in the Obama administration and they are more likely to approve of actions to address it.

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And here are some ideas on how that should be accomplished.

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There are the remains of a unique underwater 60,000-year-old cypress forest off the coast of Alabama and efforts are underway to have the site protected by designating it a marine sanctuary.

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Jaguars were extirpated in the Iberá Wetlands in northeastern Argentina some 70 years ago. But now they are back. A female and her two cubs have been released in the area. It's all part of a grand scheme for rewilding the area by reintroducing several species that were driven to extinction in the area.

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Offshore wind power seems set to take off as a source of renewable energy but it does pose hazards for wildlife. Researchers say that it needs continued study and better regulations to control the damage.

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An invasive weed, Parthenium hysterophorus, has been accidentally introduced to many parts of the world, but now two beetles - one a leaf-feeder and the other a stem-borer - have been found to control the weed biologically.

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The newly enlarged no-fishing zone around the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia has greatly benefited the Gentoo Penguins that winter on the island.

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The new administration is installing climate change experts in all departments of the federal government. The president has entered office with the largest team ever to combat global warming and is expected to institute a broad-based plan to address the problem.

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The pandemic has paused one of the world's longest-running wildlife studies, that of Michigan's Isle Royale wolves. The study has run continuously since 1959 but has now been put on hold to protect scientists and support personnel from possible exposure to the virus.

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Scientists say that US military sonar has been linked to whale beachings in the Pacific. They have called for the activity that harms the whales to stop.

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A federal appeals court on Tuesday struck down the previous administration’s plan to relax restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, paving the way for President Biden to enact new and stronger restrictions on power plants.

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Rufous Hummingbird at my backyard feeder. We have at least two of the birds spending the winter with us.

However, a Rufous really should not be in Virginia in January, but that is exactly where one has been found and banded. And that, of course, is delighting birders in the area.

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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