This week in birds

This week in birds - #545

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

The Northern Cardinal's cousin, the Pyrrhuloxia. I photographed this one on a trip to New Mexico. It is a resident of West Texas and southern parts of New Mexico and Arizona.

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There has been a dramatic surge in sea levels along southeastern coastlines and the Gulf of Mexico since 2010.

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A study reveals that nearly three billion birds have been lost on this continent since about 1970. That is a 30% decline in the total bird population.

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Here's a commentary on E.O. Wilson's grand idea of how to save the planet.

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This spring seems to be promising a spectacular bloom of wildflowers in the West.

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With the help of conservationists, the seriously endangered Gray-breasted Parakeet is making a comeback in Brazil's Atlantic Forest.

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The Great Salt Lake had seemed to be in danger of drying up but this past winter's record snowpack has given it at least a temporary reprieve.

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This is Bicknell's Thrush, a bird that keeps to the shadows and is not well-known to many people. Its numbers are decreasing and it needs our help to avoid extinction. It is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week.

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The climate and biodiversity crises are so overwhelming that one often feels helpless to fight them, but, in fact, there are actions that individuals can take to help. You can start in your own backyard. Perhaps we just need the courage to act.

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There's an exciting new find in the world of archaeology, a Mayan ball game "scoreboard."

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Meet a man who walked around the world.

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Environmental defenders are being murdered in rural communities across Mexico and Central America.

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In the last twenty years, bumblebee populations in the United States have dropped by ninety percent.

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Here's some rare good news regarding the world's tigers: India's conservation efforts have helped the big cats to bounce back from the road to extinction.

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Thousands of iconic saguaro cacti plants have been wiped out by climate change. Can human intervention save the species?

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A sauropod skull found in Queensland was from an animal that lived almost a hundred million years ago. It's only the fourth such specimen ever found.

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A boom in the population of zooplankton in Lake Tahoe has given the lake unprecedented clarity.

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The temperature of the world's ocean surface has hit an all-time high since records have been kept.

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There is a hole in the ocean's floor that could be a harbinger of trouble ahead for the planet.

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It's been a grueling winter in the Yosemite valley and it has left its mark on the landscape.

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Birdwatching is a newly flourishing activity in the Middle East.

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Here's news from the front of the great goat war that is taking place in southern France.

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Watch this clever Asian elephant peel bananas with her trunk!

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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