Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy: A review

 

Once there were wolves in Scotland but no more.  The official record shows that the last one was killed in 1680, although there are some reports that a few remained up until the 19th century. In her new novel though, Charlotte McConaghy imagines a project of reintroducing wolves in Scotland and the kinds of reactions and problems that might result.

Heading up the fictional Cairngorms Wolf Project is Inti Flynn who describes herself as a "bad-tempered Australian who finds it hard to hide contempt and sucks at public speaking." Maybe not the ideal personality for a project dependent upon establishing good public relations. Inti had previously worked with wolves in Alaska where she had assembled her team of wolf biologists who will help her with Cairngorms. The biologists travel to Scotland along with the fourteen Alaskan gray wolves they have trapped to be released in Scotland.

Wolves are apex predators and as such the biologists hope their release will help to control the deer population and restore a balance to the ecosystem of the Highlands. If the overgrazing deer are thinned out then the woodlands will be allowed to spread which in turn will boost carbon capture and biodiversity. As it happens, the human population of the area where the wolves will be released is composed mostly of sheep farmers who are not sanguine about the release of these apex predators that they view as a threat to their sheep. One of Inti's challenges is to win these people over. It's a challenge that she is very bad at meeting because of her temper and her impatience with people in general.

As we learn more about Inti, we learn that she herself is a very damaged person, having endured traumas from her family history. Inti is an identical twin and her sister who now shares a cottage with her has been physically and psychologically damaged by an abusive husband to the point where she has stopped speaking and often seems unaware of what is happening. Inti is understandably protective of her sister. 

And then there is this weird neurological condition that Inti has; it's something called mirror-touch synesthesia which means that she feels the sensory experiences of other humans and even some animals. If she sees them, she feels them. That can be a serious handicap for a biologist working with wolves because she can feel their pain. 

In time, the biologists release the wolves, all of whom wear transmitters so they can be tracked. All does not go smoothly. One of the wolves is shot by a farmer who is convinced the animal is threatening his sheep. Then a man is killed in the forest and it appears he might have been killed by wolves. Inti is frantic to protect her wolves from the retribution of the locals. In this, she has a sort of ally in the police chief Duncan MacTavish with whom she is soon having an affair.

There is a lot to process in this plot. I haven't begun to cover all of its points. One gets the feeling that the writer is not entirely in control of it. It sort of meanders all over the place as she attempts to tie up all the loose ends in the story and there were bits that just seemed totally unbelievable and unnecessary to me. What started out as an atmospheric eco-thriller about rewilding goes off the rails a bit and the ending seemed forced and rushed. After loving McConaghy's previous book, Migrations, my expectations for this one were extraordinarily high, and although I did enjoy much of it, it didn't quite deliver the satisfying read I had anticipated.

My rating 4 of 5 stars 

Poetry Sunday: Autobiography of Eve by Ansel Elkins

A few days ago, I reviewed The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw. The book begins with a line from a poem called "Autobiography of Eve" by Ansel Elkins. I had not heard of the poem or the poet and, of course, I had to go and read the entire poem. I loved it and so I am sharing it with you here today.

The poet is quoted as saying that her poem is "an ode to sex, desire, rebellion, and so-called fallen women." I read it as the story of a woman seeking to control her own life and her own body. As such, it could be said to be the autobiography of all women.

Autobiography of Eve

by Ansel Elkins

Wearing nothing but snakeskin
boots, I blazed a footpath, the first
radical road out of that old kingdom
toward a new unknown.
When I came to those great flaming gates
of burning gold,
I stood alone in terror at the threshold
between Paradise and Earth.
There I heard a mysterious echo:
my own voice
singing to me from across the forbidden
side. I shook awake—
at once alive in a blaze of green fire.

Let it be known: I did not fall from grace.

I leapt
to freedom.

This week in birds - #465

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

This week's "Bird of the Week" from the American Bird Conservancy is the Tennesee Warbler which does not in fact live in Tennesee although it passes through there on migration. The bird nests in boreal forests and thickets and winters in open woods and hedges in Central and South America.

*~*~*~*

Floods have dominated the environmental news this week. Flash floods in Tennesee and North Carolina took more than a score of lives. Scientists found that climate change contributed to the record rainfall that led to violent and deadly flooding in Germany and Belgium last month. The floods were a 400-year-event, meaning that in any given year there was a 1 in 400 chance of such an event occurring. And New York City had its rainiest hour on record on August 21 when 1.94 inches of rain fell from 10 to 11 p.m. In total 4.45 inches of rain fell that day, followed by 2.67 inches on August 22.

*~*~*~*

The New York Times has an interactive map that allows readers to track Western wildfires. 

*~*~*~*

On the Greenland ice sheet 500 miles above the Arctic Circle, something happened last Saturday that had never happened before: It rained. The rain showers were another troubling sign of a changing Arctic which is warming faster than any other region on Earth.  

*~*~*~*

Meanwhile, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasts that the Western drought will last into the fall or even longer. Currently, almost half the land area of the lower 48 states is experiencing drought.

*~*~*~*

The megadrought is so bad that wildlife officials are airlifting water to animals in the wild to relieve their thirst and help keep them alive.

*~*~*~*

A new comprehensive study in England has found that air pollution is linked to an increased severity of mental illness. The researchers said the findings were likely to be applicable to cities in most developed nations and cutting air pollution could benefit millions of people. 

*~*~*~*

A study of 40 years of volunteer data from the Canadian Lakes Loon Survey has helped to explain the mysterious decline in the population of the iconic Common Loon as fewer loon babies are being raised to independence.

*~*~*~*

Lake Tahoe, the azure gem of the Sierra Nevada is being suffocated by smoke from the Caldor fire. The thick, toxic smoke was causing residents to flee the area this week.

*~*~*~*

Female White-necked Jacobin Hummingbirds which are found from Mexico to Brazil avoid harassment by looking like males. Those with plumage that resembles the male birds are less likely to be chased, pecked-at, or body-slammed by aggressive males.

*~*~*~*

In Stanley Park in Vancouver, there have been 40 attacks on humans by coyotes in the last nine months. That is four times the total over the last 30 years! Wildlife officials are perplexed as to what is causing the attacks.

*~*~*~*

A man and his Boykin spaniels track turtles not to harm them but to save them. He fixes transmitters to their shells in order to track them and find out more about the habitats where they roam in hopes of protecting those habitats. 

*~*~*~*

Brush-tailed bettongs, a small marsupial, disappeared from mainland South Australia a hundred years ago but now they are being reintroduced. Twelve males and 28 females were released in the area on August 17.

*~*~*~*

Is geoengineering the only way left to save our planet?

*~*~*~*

The One Million Trees initiative in Dubai seemed like such an excellent idea. The aim was to increase green areas in Dubai through afforestation but then it all went awry. Today the area is a tree graveyard.

*~*~*~*

The Marbled Murrelet is a unique seabird that forages for food at sea but nests inland in mature forests. This increases their vulnerability and makes protecting them more of a challenge.

*~*~*~*

What if the mighty moose went the way of the Passenger Pigeon? The moose is abundant today but then so once was the Passenger Pigeon. It's important to protect these species before they get into trouble.

*~*~*~*

It's an attractive insect but the invasive spotted lanternfly is destroying crops of apples, grapes, and hops, as well as native trees such as maple, walnut, and willow. Officials advise exterminating the insects wherever they are found. 

*~*~*~*

Suckerfish that were once the backbone of the seasonal food system of tribes in the Klamath Basin are endangered and can no longer be legally harvested. In the battle for decreasing available water in the basin, the fish are often the losers.

*~*~*~*

A half-mile-long beaver dam in Canada's Wood Buffalo National Park is said to be the largest beaver dam in the world.

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw: A review

 

This book was an unadulterated joy for me to read. Short stories are not generally a favorite genre of mine but I'm glad I was able to overcome my prejudice and just read for enjoyment. 

Deesha Philyaw's collection consists of nine short stories. The only things they have in common are that they are all about Black women and the women's lives are connected in some way, however tangentially, to the church. The church, of course, has long been a central touchstone of Black culture in America and its influence permeates the lives of people, even those who are not regular churchgoers. All of the women in these stories want more from life than the church can offer. The roles they are meant to play in the family and community as women have been defined by the church and instilled in them by the churchgoing maternal figures in their lives, but those roles do not take into account the individual woman's body and sexuality and her goals for her life.

In the first story, for example, entitled "Eula," the protagonist Caroletta is in love with her best friend Eula. She knows that Eula may never reciprocate, that she holds on to a dream of being "normal" and having a husband and children even as the two of them make love. Eula entertains the fantasy that Caroletta has the same dream and Caroletta allows her that fantasy. Caroletta appeases herself with the bit of Eula's life that she allows her and she finds her happiness in that.

In "Instructions for Married Christian Husbands," a prostitute lays out her terms for engaging in sex with her customers. She will not waste time on a man who is not willing to follow her rules of engagement. She retains her autonomy and the upper hand.

In "Dear Sister," the father of several sisters has died. He was a mostly absent father and did not maintain close relations with any of the women. After his death, they have heard that there is another sister by a woman they did not know about and the group of four women gathers around as one of them sets out to write a letter to the unknown sister, explaining their father and reporting his death. She lays it all out for her and does not ask or expect anything in return. She simply wants her to know the truth, to know that she has sisters and a grandmother who are willing to be family for her. 

In "Jael," a great-grandmother who has already lost her daughter and her granddaughter to drugs and domestic violence, is raising a teenage great-granddaughter. While cleaning her room, she discovers Jael's diary and is appalled by what she reads there. It gets "worser and worser" the more she reads, but in the end, she allows Jael her privacy and her freedom to make her own decisions and her own mistakes.

Then there is "Peach Cobbler" which features a philandering Pastor Neely who is engaged in an affair with at least one, maybe more, of his parishioners. He really loves the woman's peach cobbler and she makes him one for each of his weekly visits to her house. The image of him standing at the kitchen table and eating the cobbler from the pan reveals his animal nature rather disgustingly. When the woman's daughter, Olivia, makes her own peach cobbler based on watching her mother and delivers it to the pastor's wife and son, it is an act of defiance on her part and a way of pursuing her own power.  

The other stories in the collection are the intriguingly titled "How to Make Love to a Physicist," "Snowfall," "Not Daniel," and the especially poignant "When Eddie Levert Comes" which features an elderly mother suffering from Alzheimer's and the daughter who she no longer recognizes and never gave much tenderness who is now responsible for her care. It is nearly impossible for me to choose a favorite from these nine, but if pressed hard I might choose "Dear Sister" just for its sardonic humor and the sisterly relationships that are described so well.

This was Philyaw's debut collection of short stories and it was an award winner. Its acclaim was well earned in my view. It is very well-written and features characters we can identify and empathize with. The collection opens with a quote from Ansel Elkins' poem, "Autobiography of Eve": "Let it be known: I did not fall from grace. I leapt to freedom." The women in these stories are all in their various ways leaping toward freedom.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Owls of the Eastern Ice: A Quest to Find and Save the World's Largest Owl by Jonathan C. Slaght: A review

 

Blakiston's Fish Owl is the largest owl in the world. The females who are bigger than the males of the species can weigh as much as ten pounds and wingspans of more than six feet have been measured. This giant among owls lives in remote forests along the Russia/Japan/Korea border, a habitat that it shares with the Amur (aka Siberian) tiger. Both of the creatures are endangered and this area is among their last refuges.

Wildlife biologist Jonathan Slaght first visited this Primorye region of eastern Russia as a member of the Peace Corps when he was nineteen years old. He was overpowered by the incredible terrain of this remarkable habitat that was home to an amazing diversity of animals. Later, when as a graduate student the time came for him to choose a subject for research and dissertation, he knew what he wanted to do. He wanted to study those magnificent fish owls and by uncovering the secrets of their lives to be able to get governments to protect them. In order to secure the conservation of this one species, it would be necessary to protect the habitat and that could in turn rescue many species. 

In 2005, Slaght teamed up with a Russian crew to conduct research in the area and ultimately to make a conservation plan for the owls. The best time to study these owls is in the winter during their breeding season but that is a brutal time in their part of the world. Slaght and his team were forced to navigate frozen rivers and their deadly and unpredictable thaws and the winter storms with attendant snow and ice and freezing winds offered little let up. Deep in the woods, the team repeatedly encountered an eccentric array of hermits, recluses, and hunters. Though warned that meeting a person in the woods was not a good thing, for the most part, these experiences proved to be benign and occasionally they even revealed people who were able to and willing to help.  

Slaght's book relates in great detail the rigors and repetitive nature of fieldwork in such a hostile environment. The team not infrequently finds itself stranded for weeks by storms, floods, and melting ice, not to mention problems with equipment that breaks and other miscellaneous misfortunes. The men are forced to cohabit in close - sometimes very close - quarters with all the irritations that involves. In between all those adventures and near-death experiences, they spend a lot of time waiting. Waiting for the owls to show themselves. Waiting for them to enter one of the traps. Waiting and hoping they will be able to affix the GPS trackers to monitor the birds' movements. While waiting, Slaght becomes hyper-aware of the landscape and all that is happening in it. He takes note of it all and now he tells us about it in this remarkable book.

His enigmatic quarry seems most un-owl-like as he describes them. They hunt underwater prey and so they have no use for the silent flight of most owls. Their flights on those enormous wingspans can be noisy and often appear awkward, but they have evolved to fill a particular niche and they fill it quite well.

Slaght returned year after year to tag owls and collect their data for his eventual dissertation. During those years, he sometimes witnessed heartbreaking tragedies among both the people and the animals of this harsh region. He tells us about that, too, and some of it makes for difficult reading. But he is an effective storyteller and he makes us see why he so loves that region. We begin to appreciate the peace and healing that can be found in this unforgiving forest. And especially we can appreciate the dedicated people who spend their lives trying to preserve it and the wonderful owls that make it their home. 

My rating: 4 of 5 stars 

Poetry Sunday: Penny by Barbara Crooker

As a person who's been owned by many cats over the years, this is a trip I've had to make more times than I can count. It never gets any easier.

PENNY

by Barbara Crooker

She wasn’t a good cat. Wouldn’t let us pick her up
or cuddle on the bed. Sometimes she’d permit

petting, but only if she was in the mood, and on
her own terms. If she was perched on a chair, perhaps

you might approach. But now, at fifteen, she’s stopped
eating and drinking, sleeps all day. Instead

of wrestling the white Christmas Teddy, taking him down
to the bottom of the stairs, she’s huddled next to him

on the landing. Will even let me sit with her
and stroke her fur. I think she’ll slip from us

peacefully, but she’s starting to stagger, can’t
use the litter box, and her cries are terrible

to hear. So I take her to the vet–the place she hates
most in this world–because what else is there to do?

There’ll be no return trip. I hold her in my arms,
a fur-wrapped bag of bones. She’s gone beyond fear.

It’s not like I’m saying good-bye to a beloved friend–
she’s been peeing outside the box for months,

and “Aloof” is her middle name. But she’s purring
under my hand, as the vet slips the needle in, murmurs

appropriate clichés. I’m not sure what kind of loss this is–
how can you love what doesn’t love you back?–but for the rest

of the day, I wander through the empty rooms, looking
for a trace of orange, glimpse of a whisker. For she

was beautiful, and she knew it. No wonder the Egyptians
thought cats were gods. And now, we’re left, not bereft,

exactly, but stranded, washed up on some strange shore,
wandering, in the country of the merely ordinary.

This week in birds - #464

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

   Photo by Gualberto Becerro, courtesy of American Bird Conservancy.

The American Bird Conservancy's "Bird of the Week" is the beautiful Aplomado Falcon, a hunter of open savanna, prairie, desert, and grasslands. Today it is a resident in parts of Texas but was largely extirpated from its range in the U.S. in the 1950s.

*~*~*~*

In the midst of all the chaos in world news this week, suffering Haiti has probably not received the attention it deserves. First, it was hit by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake that killed hundreds. That was on Saturday. A couple of days later Tropical Storm Grace drenched the country while emergency crews were still trying to find and dig out survivors of the quake. And of course, this followed the political upheaval following the assassination of Haiti's president a few weeks before. Here is a list of vetted organizations that are helping in the country. If you are in a position to donate to them, please consider it. (Please note the Red Cross is not among them. That organization has a problematic history in Haiti.)

*~*~*~*

Wisconsin has chosen to ignore the recommendations of scientists and conservationists and allow the killing of as many as 300 gray wolves, more than a third of the state's population of the animals, in an autumn hunt.  Hunters exceeded the numbers that the state "allowed" in the last hunt; what's to prevent them from doing that again?

*~*~*~*

Louisiana activists have scored a victory with the news that the U.S. government has placed further delays on a proposed multibillion-dollar plastics plant in the southern part of the state, an area known as Cancer Alley because of the high percentage of cancer cases there, many directly related to environmental conditions.

*~*~*~*

The E.P.A. is reversing a decision taken by the previous administration to allow the pesticide chlorpyrifos to remain in use. The pesticide has been linked to neurological damage in children and its use will now be blocked.

*~*~*~*

With climate change and long-term drought continuing to take a toll on the Colorado River, the federal government has, for the first time, declared a water shortage at Lake Mead, one of the river's main reservoirs. This will trigger cuts in the water supply available to farmers in Arizona first but also in Nevada and for Mexico.

*~*~*~*

Vultures in three species, including this Long-billed Vulture, are being captive-bred by Indian conservationists to be released back into the wild. The three species that also include the White-rumped and Slender-billed are all critically endangered. Their numbers have been decimated by exposure to drugs used to treat cattle that become vulture food when they die.

*~*~*~*

A major U.N. biodiversity summit has been delayed for a third time because of the pandemic. It had been scheduled for October. Organizers now hope to have a face-to-face meeting in the coming year.

*~*~*~*

Should lynxes be rewilded to Britain? They could help control deer numbers and enrich the ecosystem but there is much opposition to their reintroduction, especially among farmers. The public needs more education and reassurance on the issue. 

*~*~*~*

Willow, the multimillion-dollar Alaskan drilling project of ConocoPhillips that had been approved by the previous administration and then legally supported by the Biden administration has been blocked by a federal court order. The judge blocked construction permits, citing the effects the drilling would have on wildlife in the area and that the burning of oil would have on global warming.

*~*~*~*

What happens when farmers and gardeners repeatedly use pesticides to control weeds over a number of years? The weeds adapt; they become resistant. Nature finds a way. The result: Superweeds. 

*~*~*~*

A 180-acre parcel of land owned by the international airport in San Francisco is home to about 1,300 of these colorful and endangered San Francisco garter snakes. The snakes that can grow up to three feet long are considered some of the most beautiful snakes in the world.

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Horseshoe crabs are very primitive animals, having changed hardly at all in over 300 million years. Proof of this was found in a rare and exceptional fossilized imprint of a horseshoe crab's brain that was found in the Mason Creek deposit in northeastern Illinois.

*~*~*~*

Bobcats are a successful species and are widespread over the continent. They are the species featured in The Revelator's "Species Spotlight" this week.

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Wildfires are burning right around the world. Here are maps that show the locations of some of the worst. 

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It seems that some bat pups actually babble in a way that mimics human babies. That shouldn't be surprising, I guess, since we are both mammals.

*~*~*~*

Rattlesnakes, on the other hand, employ very effective non-verbal communications to advertise their presence and warn potential threats.

*~*~*~*

The Red Sea coral reefs off the Israeli resort of Eilat host some of the greatest coral diversity on the planet. Ecological groups fear that this treasure is imperiled by a secretive oil deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

*~*~*~*

For fifty years the Owens pupfish has flickered on the edge of extinction but a new refuge in the California desert finally offers the little fish its first real chance to thrive.

The Vixen by Francine Prose: A review

 

Francine Prose has written a very funny, indeed often hilarious, novel about an execution. Specifically, it is the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in 1953, after having been found guilty of conspiracy to commit espionage for the Soviet Union. But I suppose it's wrong to say it is "about" the executions. It's really about people's reactions to the executions and how the fact of the event was used by certain people for their own purposes.

The protagonist of the story is one Simon Putnam who was a recent Harvard graduate at the time. He had studied folklore and myths and he was obsessed by a particular Icelandic saga of revenge. He had hoped to continue in graduate school but his application was turned down and in 1953 he was living with his parents in his childhood home on Coney Island. For some unknown reason, given his stellar training in folklore, he was having trouble finding a job.

The Putnam family was Jewish and Simon's mother had known and grown up in the same neighborhood with Ethel Rosenberg. She did not believe that Ethel was guilty of espionage but that she had been duped by her husband and the Soviet agent. She was very distressed as the family watched sitcoms on television on the night of the execution with frequent breaking news interruptions about what was happening. Her husband showed his nervousness by making very bad jokes about the whole thing. Simon was in the middle of it all. His way of coping was to go to the amusement park on Coney Island and ride the roller coaster and other attractions there.

When Simon's mother persuaded her brother-in-law to use his influence to get Simon a job at the publishing house of Landry, Landry, and Bartlett, it seemed like a godsend. What better place for a liberal-educated smart young man who loved words and good sentences? A position editing books seemed just the ticket to get him on the road to success. Soon after his hire, his boss dropped into his cubbyhole office to deliver a book he wanted Simon to edit.

Initially, Simon is proud that he is being given the responsibility for a book that his boss assured him will be a best seller and would help to secure the publishing house's liquidity. Then he started reading the book titled The Vixen, the Patriot and the Fanatic. It was terrible! Even worse than the hilariously awful writing was the subject matter; it was about the Rosenbergs, although in the book they are called Esther and Junius Rosenstein. The only good thing about the book was the sexy cover picture of the gorgeous author reclining on her bed. Simon spends his nights masturbating to that picture while trying to figure out ways to get her to meet with him to discuss "improvements" to her book.

Simon views the book as a betrayal of his mother's memories of Ethel Rosenberg. The writer has turned this rather dumpy middle-class housewife into a femme fatale with "ample, shapely breasts." She describes her as the "notoriously buxom and beautiful Mata Hari who'd almost slithered through the dragnet the F.B.I. dropped around her." She was possessed of an unchecked libido that drove the men around her mad with desire, made them lose all reason. One begins to wonder why a slick operation like Landry, Landry, and Bartlett would want to publish such an unmitigated piece of garbage. And one would be right to wonder.

Some of the more memorable and funny moments of this book are "excerpts" from The Vixen, the Patriot and the Fanatic as Simon struggles to find a way out of his predicament that will allow him to keep his job and his self-respect and also be able to face his mother. After spending about two-thirds of the book setting up this conflict, the latter part of it is all twists and turns leading to a most satisfying conclusion. 

Prose writes with a subtle clarity that offers insights that can only make the reader nod her head in agreement. As we read we begin to realize there is more here than at first meets the eye. As things spiral out of control around us, what is it in our DNA or character that determines how we will respond? Is it all just an accident of fate? Could the Rosenbergs//Rosensteins have acted any differently? Could Simon or his parents? Could we? Yes, it is an amusing novel and a page-turner, but it also gives us something to think about.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars 

Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future by Elizabeth Kolbert: A review

 

The white sky of the title would come about because we have sprayed light-reflective particles into the atmosphere making the blue skies look white and theoretically helping to deflect solar radiation thereby cooling the planet. It's just one of the ideas for geo- or bioengineering that are explored in Elizabeth Kolbert's latest book. Our species has been so successful in modifying the environment that we have become the dominant influence on the natural world and we have named the geological epoch in which we are now living for ourselves. We are living in the Anthropocene and our hubris, it seems, knows no bounds.

Today's scientists are exploring ways to affect the Nature of the future in ways that will correct the damage that we have already done and continue to do to it. Thus, they consider ways to shield the planet from solar heat, control and eradicate invasive species, or direct the flow of rivers in what we consider to be more beneficial or less destructive ways. And all of this is to correct what we have previously done.

A prime example is the Asian carp. The fish was introduced to American waterways in 1963 as a nontoxic way to help clear aquatic weeds. The carp are voracious feeders and in areas, they outcompeted native species until the natives were virtually extirpated. They spread throughout the waterways of the Midwest and up to the Great Lakes. Nearly sixty years later, we are in a battle to clear them out.

The Mississippi River that bisects the country is one of those battlefronts. It has also long been a tinkertoy for the Army Corps of Engineers as they build levees, dredge, and otherwise attempt to direct its flow. Those efforts all too often have had unintended consequences. Just ask New Orleanians.

For me, one of the most fascinating sections of Kolbert's book dealt with the pupfish, rare species of fish endemic to California. There are several distinct species but the Owens pupfish is one of the rarest of the rare and the efforts of scientists and conservationists to protect and preserve the little fish, as related by Kolbert, are nothing short of heroic. I particularly liked the response of one of the scientists who was asked, "What good is a pupfish?" He replied, "What good are you?" Indeed.

Kolbert goes on to discuss the sad history of what we have done and are doing to the coral reefs of the world and of efforts to breed corals that are more resistant to higher temperatures. This is one of those bioengineering projects that hopes to correct or ameliorate the damage we've done. Another is an attempt to essentially breed the invasive cane toads of Australia out of existence. Engrossing stuff.

Kolbert tells all of this in a straightforward way without any alarmist tendencies. She is very good at presenting this timely information in a way that can be absorbed by her readers. At one point, she quotes Horace from 20 B.C.E. He wrote: "Drive out nature though you will with a pitchfork, yet she will always hurry back, and before you know it, will break through your perverse disdain in triumph." Or as a character in a movie once said, "Nature will find a way."

My rating: 4 of 5 stars 

 

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - August 2021

Happy August Bloom Day and welcome to my zone 9a garden in Southeast Texas. After all the rain that I reported on last Bloom Day, it suddenly stopped a few weeks ago and had been very dry since until today. Today we finally did get substantial rain which the garden and the gardener much appreciated.

In spite of the uncertain weather conditions, I do have a few blooms to report.

The Texas sage, aka purple sage, is in bloom.

The 'Pride of Barbados' has been attracting scores of butterflies of many kinds this month, but of course, when I went to take pictures there were none there.

The watermelon pink crape myrtle blooms on.

Rudbeckia hirta, black-eyed Susan.

Tropical milkweed.

Blue plumbago, of course.

'Julia Child' rose.

Hamelia patens, Mexican firebush.

The beautyberry has finished blooming and is now producing its berries in purple...

...and in white.

Yellow canna.

My old orange canna.

When the Duranta erecta blooms mature, they produce yellow berries that are called golden dewdrops. Birds like them a lot and many of the berries have already been picked clean as you see here.

Pentas.

From my patio succulent garden.

Justicia 'Orange Flame.'

Vitex with bumblebee.

Portulaca.

Ruellia, Mexican petunia.

Butterfly bush, Buddleia 'Pugster Amethyst.'

A glowing backlit Mexican sunflower, Tithonia.

A bird-planted sunflower.

'Cashmere Bouquet' clerodendrum, Mexican hydrangea.

Thank you for visiting. I hope both you and your garden are doing well and I hope to visit you in turn. 

Linking to Carol of May Dreams Gardens, our host for this meme.

Poetry Sunday: Trying To Remember by Eric Nixon

Most of my great ideas seem to come when I'm lying awake in the middle of the night. In the night, behind my closed eyelids, anything seems possible and I can visualize the implementation of my plans right down to the smallest detail. And everything works perfectly. In the morning, in the light of day and the press of daily life, it's impossible to remember what it was about that idea that was so great. Or even what the idea was. Life goes on and tonight I'll lie awake and make my plans once again. Tomorrow I'll try to remember.

Trying To Remember

by Eric Nixon

Trying to remember
The great idea I had
That I came up with
Just yesterday
But sadly, sitting here
Under the ornate tin ceiling
Of the busy cafe
With the sound and smell
Of jaunty piano music
Swirling together in concert
With the thick layering
Of freshly ground coffee
Punctuated by the occasional
Clattering of plates
And the steady background
Droning of scattered conversation
Inside
While I look out the window
At the passing traffic on Route 9
And the billowy greens
Of the maple trees across the street
Swaying in the breezy late-day winds
Looking picture-perfect
With the help of the low-lying sun
Brightly-lit light green
Contrasting nicely
With the shadowy side of each branch
Deeply-dark emerald
And all of a sudden
I realize I don’t care
About what I’ve forgotten
Since I’ve gotten
So much more
From my minutes
Of being lost in thought

This week in birds - #463

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

Brown Pelicans on Galveston Bay. 

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I'm sure that you will not be surprised to learn that last month was the hottest month ever recorded on Earth.

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According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report issued this week, humans have heated the planet by 1.1 degrees Celsius or 2 degrees Fahrenheit since the 19th century mostly by burning coal, oil, and gas for energy. At this point, we cannot stop global warming from intensifying over the next thirty years and we have a very short window for preventing the most harrowing future.

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Another study released this week revealed heat-related health problems experienced by tens of millions of Americans last year. These, too, are expected to intensify in the future. 

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Legislation to restore and strengthen the Migratory Bird Treaty Act has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives.

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The February freeze in Texas brought home to this science writer in Austin just what losing the coral reefs might be like.

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Birds love hair for their nests and they will take it anywhere they can get it - including from living animals.

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The first living "murder hornet" of 2021 has been spotted in Washington state. Another hornet was found earlier this year but it was already dead.

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Wastewater exposes animals that swim there and plants that live there to various chemical compounds that are utilized by humans. What effect does exposure to these chemicals have on the plants and animals? That is a question currently being studied by scientists. 

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Mice, voles, shrews, rats, and dormice all produce high-pitched sounds to attract partners, ward off potential threats, communicate within families, and even find their way around using echo orientation. Scientists in England are using bat detectors to listen to and study these sounds. 

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The American Bird Conservancy's "Bird of the Week" is the elusive White-eyed Vireo, a bird of dense, scrubby habitats that is likely more often heard than seen.

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Here are five things that you need to know about the IPCC report on climate from this week.

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A report found that big oil companies spent $10 million on Facebook ads last year and what exactly were they selling with that? Here's a clue: The ads peaked whenever politicians seemed poised to act on the climate. 

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It turns out that the tusks of wooly mammoths are a bit like road maps that carry a record of where the animal has roamed during its life. The tusks of a mammoth from some 17,000 years ago that scientists named Kik for their study showed that he had lived for twenty-eight years which would have been middle-age for a mammoth and that he wandered far and wide across Alaska during that period.

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A high temperature of 48.8 degrees Centigrade or 119.85 Fahrenheit was recorded in Sicily during the recent heatwave there, making it the highest temperature ever recorded in European history.

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Here is more on the social life of giraffes. Scientists are finding that the structures of their societies are just as complex as those of chimpanzees and elephants.

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How do you distinguish one large all-black bird from another kind of large all-black bird? Here are some clues for telling crows from ravens.

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A botanist and artist is a proselytizer for the marvels of plant life and for the urgency of saving it.

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A second western Canadian town, Monte Lake in British Columbia, has been destroyed by an "exceedingly aggressive" wildfire. This is after the village of Lytton was destroyed last month.

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After critical stories in the news media about the surveillance of pipeline opponents in Minnesota, law enforcement there has blocked the release of public records about the surveillance.

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The two biggest reservoirs on the Colorado River, Lakes Powell and Mead, have fallen to one-third of their capacity, causing the dwindling flow of water to threaten everything from crop production to electricity generation in the area.

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A bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives to reauthorize the nation's primary fisheries law and to strengthen it by better accounting for climate change, protecting coastal ecosystems, and factoring in the importance of forage fish as food for seabirds. 

Peaces by Helen Oyeyemi: A review

Helen Oyeyemi was born in Nigeria and raised in London. Now she lives in Prague. Her novels, as far as I can tell having now read two of them, are set in some other country of her own imagination. Place always seems to be ambiguous. In 2019, I read her book, Gingerbread, which began in a magical country called Druhástrana. The location of events in this work seems even more enigmatic, except that we know they happen on a train. It's a train called Lucky Day and at one time it was used in tea smuggling. And is tea smuggling a real thing? Who knows? In Helen Oyeyemi's world apparently, it is.

I have mentioned here before that when I commit to reading a book, I am going to read it all the way through, even if it turns out not to be an enjoyable experience. I know readers, including one who lives in the same house with me, who consider this a stupid philosophy. After all, life is too short for bad books. But I tend to choose my books pretty carefully and I read them for a reason. A commitment is a commitment. The closest I have ever come to actually giving up on a book was probably Peaces.

I knew going in that Oyeyemi writes what are essentially fairy tales and she draws heavily on traditions of African folk tales as well as Western fairy tales. I knew that her plots do not necessarily exist in a rational sense, but seriously, WTF? I read and I read, attempting to make some kind of sense of the words I was seeing and to understand the writer's purpose. I failed miserably.

We have two characters, Otto and Xavier Shin who are not married but are a committed couple who have recently decided to use the same surname. Xavier's aunt, in celebration of this fact, offers the couple a "non-honeymoon honeymoon" trip on the Lucky Day. The train's owner, Ava Kapoor and her lover, Allegra Yu, are also passengers on the train. A woman who is apparently some kind of legal representative named Laura De Souza is a fifth passenger. And that's it. Oh, except for the two mongooses, Otto and Xavier's pet and Ava and Allegra's pet.

And so the train is off on its journey with these passengers. Where did it start and where is it going? Not clear, at least to me, and maybe it doesn't matter. In the course of the trip, we learn a bit more about the characters and about how they might be connected, and also about someone named Premysl Stojaspal, the son of an artist named Karel Stojaspal who paints canvases in all white, canvases that then reveal different pictures to different people according to their imaginations. 

But does this Premysl really exist or is he, too, a picture created by the individuals' imaginations? What does it mean to exist only as a figment of the imagination and someone who can never be really seen? Seriously, what does it mean, and furthermore, who cares?

I think the train is meant to be a metaphor, but I never figured out what it or, indeed, the characters were supposed to represent. Helen Oyeyemi has a vivid imagination and she tells wild and crazy tales. I enjoyed Gingerbread because of its focus on the three main women characters and their life stories; this one, not so much. I'll think twice before adding another of her books to my reading list.

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

A Comedy of Terrors by Lindsey Davis: A review

 

Lines from a Bob Dylan song kept running through my mind as I was reading this. Remember "When I Paint My Masterpiece"? It's the one that starts "Oh, the streets of Rome are filled with rubble..." and it goes on to mention several famous sites in Rome. The streets of 89 C.E. Rome may not have been filled with rubble exactly, but they often seem to have been strewn with quite a lot of the less salubrious effluvium of city life. In other words, you had to watch your step. With these kinds of meticulous details, Lindsey Davis paints vivid pictures of ancient Rome in her historic mysteries. The reader can easily imagine herself on those streets.

Several years ago, Davis had a series featuring private detective, or "informer" as she styles the profession, Marcus Didius Falco. The first in the series came out in 1989 and the twentieth and last book was published in 2009. I read and loved them all. Falco was and is a great character, tough and full of sardonic humor but with a heart of gold for the underprivileged. But then his father died and left him the family auction business and Falco hung up his gumshoes, so to speak, and became a businessman. But he and his wife Helena had an adopted Briton daughter called Flavia Albia who had learned well at her father's knee. Independent-minded and seeking to be self-sufficient and with her parents' blessing, she set herself up as a private informer. Thus began a new series that has now grown to nine books. I read the first one when it came out in 2013, then I moved on to other things and I never got around to the later books. But when I saw that the latest one had been published, I decided it was time to visit ancient Rome once again. It's nice to learn that Lindsey Davis hasn't lost her touch.

Flavia Albia is now pushing thirty and is recently remarried (after widowhood) to one of Rome's aediles (magistrates) and they are foster parents to the aedile's two young nephews whose mother has died and whose father is irresponsible. Albia and husband Tiberius preside over a chaotic but benevolent household of various family members, servants, and hangers-on. We meet them all during December Saturnalia celebrations when things are possibly even more chaotic than usual. 

Albia's work is in a slow period but she is determined to continue with it despite her new responsibilities as a parent. When she is approached by a woman who claims to want to leave her abusive husband and disappear into a new life, she takes the case and agrees to help her. It is only later that she learns that the situation may not have been quite what the woman had described.

Meantime, Tiberius is conducting his own investigation with the help of the vigiles (police/firemen in ancient Rome). It is an investigation of fraud in the nut-selling business, an important enterprise, especially during Saturnalia. One nut leads to another and soon the investigation reveals even more rampant fraud, bribery, intimidation, and murder. Moreover, the investigation overlaps with Albia's case, and the two join forces to combat evil and a threat to their family. They are on a tight schedule because Tiberius' term in office and his authority end with the new year so they need to wrap it all up swiftly.

This story includes some fairly disgusting and grisly goings-on at times as one might expect in ancient Rome but Davis tells it all with a light touch. Albia has evidently learned her humor from her father so she has a way of delivering the narrative (and we see everything through her eyes) with frequent sardonic bon mots that can't fail to bring a smile. Davis even brings on Falco and Helena in guest appearances for nostalgia's sake. Best of all perhaps, Lindsey Davis continues to excel at her descriptions of life in that ancient city. Walk through those streets and watch out for the rubble and that less salubrious effluvium and you'll find that the city teems with all the delight and delirium of life lived large. I'm glad I decided to check in on this series again.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Poetry Sunday: Life Expectancy by Billy Collins

It's not a birthday ending in zero but I do have a birthday coming up tomorrow, August 9. In recent years, these events more and more make me reflect on the time that I've lived and what might be left. It's pretty certain that the years that are left will be fewer than those already lived. And if that thought depresses me, I can turn to Billy Collins who always has a way of cheering me up.

LIFE EXPECTANCY

by Billy Collins

On the morning of a birthday that ended in a zero,
I was looking out at the garden
when it occurred to me that the robin
on her worm-hunt in the dewy grass
had a good chance of outliving me,
as did the worm itself for that matter
if he managed to keep his worm-head down.

It was not always like this.
For decades, I could assume
that I would be around longer
than the squirrel dashing up a tree
or the nightly raccoons in the garbage,
longer than the barred owl on a branch,
the ibis, the chicken, and the horse,

longer than four deer in a clearing
and every creature in the zoo
except the elephant and the tortoise,
whose cages I would hurry past.
It was just then in my calculations
that the cat padded noiselessly into the room,
and it seemed reasonable,

given her bright eyes and glossy coat,
to picture her at my funeral,
dressed all in black, as usual,
which would nicely set off her red collar,
some of the mourners might pause in their grieving to notice,
as she found a place next to a labradoodle
in a section of the church reserved for their kind.

This week in birds - #462

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

Purple Gallinule, photographed at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge on the Texas coast.

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During the previous administration that was extremely hostile to science, hundreds of scientists and policy experts left government service. The Biden administration has been unable to quickly fill the jobs with qualified people and this has hampered their efforts to formulate plans to combat climate change.

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This is rather terrifying. Climate scientists say that their research has shown "an almost complete loss of stability over the last century" of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC), better known as the Gulf Stream. The collapse of the Gulf Stream would have catastrophic consequences for climate around the world. 

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Siberia's permafrost is thawing and that has generated a surge of methane emissions from thawing rock formations. This is important because methane, of course, is a greenhouse gas and scientists are warning that if we do not reduce our methane emissions the overheated planet is headed for catastrophe. Specifically, we need to reduce the production of methane from farming, shale gas, and oil extraction.

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In other news of things melting, a heatwave last week caused Greenland's largest melting event so far in 2021. Enough water melted to cover all of Florida by two inches. This has both short- and long-term implications for sea-level rise.

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Because of the severe drought and dire water shortages, California has moved to enact emergency restrictions that will prevent thousands of farmers and landowners from using water drawn from an enormous system of streams and rivers that services nearly two-thirds of the state.

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The iconic saguaro cacti of the Sonoran Desert are threatened by invasive species and urban sprawl and now by wildfires accelerated by climate change. In the past year, wildfires have torched thousands of the towering saguaros that are a keystone species of the desert and a beloved symbol of the Southwest. 

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The toxic red tide outbreak that has killed hundreds of tons of marine animals in Florida has caused hundreds of coastal sharks of many species to take refuge in a canal to escape the deadly algal outbreak. 

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Scientists have discovered a larger than average area of oxygen-depleted water, a "dead zone," around the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Texas. But the Gulf isn't the only coastal region experiencing dead zones this summer. The waters around Oregon are also experiencing a record year for hypoxic areas. These zones develop when fertilizers and nutrients from farmland drain into oceans and lakes creating algae that eventually dies and decomposes, depleting the waters of oxygen.

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The biggest wildfire in its history burned more than 62 square miles on Hawaii's Big Island before it was brought under control this week. It was fed by a perfect storm of drought conditions.

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Conditions above and in the Atlantic Ocean suggest that this year's hurricane season will be an above-average one, according to a government climate scientist. NOAA is predicting 15 to 21 named storms, including 7 to 10 hurricanes by the end of the season on November 30. Three to five of the hurricanes could be major ones of category 3 or higher.

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The African house gecko is an invasive species that has spread far and wide throughout the Americas. It is thought that the species may have first arrived here as a hitchhiker on ships carrying slaves.

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The U.S. Forest Service announced this week that it is closing several sites around California's scenic Lake Tahoe because chipmunks in the area have been found to be carrying bubonic plague.

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And in Europe, teams are battling another disease among animals: African swine fever among wild boars. The virus is no threat to humans but it kills almost every pig it infects within a week to ten days. Teams are trying to prevent its spread to domestic swine.

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The National Marine Fisheries Service has finalized rules to expand the protected critical habitat for Washington's orca pods from the Canadian border all the way down to Point Sur in California, adding 15,910 square miles to the present protected area.

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Another story of an animal that has no business being where it is: In Grand Prairie, Texas near Dallas this week a venomous West African banded cobra escaped its owner's house and is still on the loose. The snake is said to be shy but will bite if disturbed and its bite can be fatal. Members of the public were warned against approaching or trying to capture it. 

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In research that is the first of its kind, scientists in Barcelona found that bottled water has a 3,500 times higher impact on the environment than tap water.

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A bill has passed the U.S. House of Representatives to make the former Japanese Americans incarceration camp known as Amache a National Historic Site in order to preserve the stories and the memories of those who were confined there. 

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A 2,624-year-old bald cypress in a North Carolina swamp is said to be the oldest tree in the eastern United States but it is problematic whether it will long survive rising sea levels.

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President Biden on Thursday unveiled a plan to make cars and light trucks more fuel-efficient and to begin a shift to electric vehicles over the next decade. An executive order would require at least half of new vehicles to be electric or plug-in hybrids by 2030. 

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Mother Nature is well and truly ticked off with humans and she has sent us warning after warning to make us clean up our act. The problem seems to be that our narcissistic human nature refuses to get the message.

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This vibrant creature is a Panamanian golden frog. It is critically endangered and now exists only in conservation breeding programs. Yet there is still hope that it may survive and someday be reintroduced to the wild.

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But will the manatee survive? This has already been the deadliest year on record for the species. Scientists and activists are struggling to try to prevent further disasters for the gentle sea cows.

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History has been made at the reserve on the Japanese island of Kyushu. The macaques there have their first alpha female leader in the reserve's 70-year history. Equality for female monkeys!

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And in further evidence of the power of females, scientists studying giraffe social behavior have found that giraffe grandmothers are high-value family members that help the group to find resources in difficult times.