This week in birds -#500

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

A Sora searches among the reeds for its dinner.

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New Mexico is burning. A wildfire fueled by the drought has consumed thousands of acres and the governor of the state has asked the president to declare a disaster area in order to free up more funds to fight the catastrophic blaze.

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A global review has found that birds are disappearing at an alarming rate. Half of the approximately 11,000 avian species on Earth are losing population while only 6% are increasing.

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But there is hope. Just look at the California Condor, once nearly extinct and now flying over California's redwoods for the first time in a century.

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India and Pakistan are suffering through a brutal heatwave which has exacerbated massive energy shortages on the subcontinent.

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It's pollen season and the native pollinators are busy out there collecting it. One way to help protect native pollinators is to plant native wildflowers that will provide pollen and nectar for insects such as bees, ants, and butterflies.

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Modern technology is helping to find and preserve ancient Native American cave art.

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Nature will find a way to deal with just about anything that we humans throw at her. Even the Great Pacific Garbage Patch which we have learned is being colonized by tiny creatures.

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In Zimbabwe, where the drought has brought intensified competition for food and water, there is conflict not just between animals but between animals and humans.

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The transitional fossil fish called Tiktaalik roseae flopped out of the water and onto land some 375 million years ago and some would argue that we've been flopping ever since!

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A recent paper by a national group of biologists and zoologists laid out a pathway for museums and zoos to work together to protect the planet's biodiversity.

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Here's a visit to a Great Blue Heron nest in Milford, Michigan.

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A tribe living at the southern tip of South America was thought to be extinct, but it seems that their descendants are still living in Chile and that the government there will soon legally recognize them.

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This is an illustration of the Hawaiian Po'ouli which is now considered to be extinct. The last one died in our lifetimes. Here is the species' obituary.

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Oyster harvesting was occurring in Australia and North America for at least 10,000 years prior to colonization, helping to sustain the indigenous communities there.

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Colonial Jamestown, the 400-year-old site in Virginia, is facing disaster because of climate change. Chronic flooding has landed the site on the endangered list.

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Time-lapse photography by a NOAA satellite documents twin disasters, showing smoke from the wildfire in New Mexico and a dust storm stirred up by violent winds in Colorado.

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Did you ever wonder how trilobites made babies? Well, perhaps not, but rest assured that even before there were birds and bees there was sex. Proof? Here we are!

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A spate of attacks on human residents by wild boar in Rome has caused several neighborhoods in the north of the city to impose curfews. It seems that the wild boar have been sharing the city with humans for many years.

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Single-use plastic products are being sold and distributed in America's national parks which certainly seems like a contradiction to the whole philosophy behind the national park system which the writer Wallace Stegner famously termed "America's best idea."

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Exterminating wolves, on the other hand, is arguably one of America's very worst ideas. Will we never learn?

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It turns out that graveyards, peaceful, unpolluted, and often left untouched for centuries, are some of our wildest Nature sites.

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The U.N.'s latest climate change report details positive steps that the world can take to halt the cycle of disaster.

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This is a bit of a milestone for me. This is the 500th of these roundups of bird and environmental news that I have done, going all the way back to my earlier blog, Backyard Birder, in December 2011. There have been many times over the years when I have considered giving it up. Does it really do any good? And yet I keep plugging away at it because somehow I just can't quit. We all have to do whatever bit we can to try to increase awareness of the peril we face and this is my little bit. Thank you for taking the time to read it.

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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