This week in birds

This week in birds - #549

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

An Orange-crowned Warbler enjoys a taste of orange.

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"Murder hornets" have a (somewhat undeserved) fearsome reputation but would you recognize one if you saw it?

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The iconic mountain lion known as P-22 no longer stalks the hills of Los Angeles but he lives on in the hearts of Angelenos.

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Today is World Migratory Bird Day and all across the continent birds are on the move to their summer homes and that includes the smallest of them, the hummingbirds.

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"Statistically impossible" heat waves are becoming more of the norm every year.

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The profits of the four highest-polluting investor-owned companies in the world - Exxon, Chevron, Shell, and BP - are almost inconceivably large.

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Many outdoor brands are phasing out "forever chemicals" in their products ahead of an expected ban of the substances.

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This beauty is the aptly named Yellow Warbler and it is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week.

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Recent research indicates that it took three tries before Homo sapiens was able to supplant the Neanderthals in Europe.

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This is the Saurona triangula, a newly discovered species of butterfly named for Sauron, the evil ruler of Mordor in Lord of the Rings. It was so named because it is "rimmed with fire" like Sauron's kingdom.

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Rex Brasher may indeed be the "greatest bird artist you never heard of."

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Ecuador has come up with a record-setting plan to preserve and protect the Galápagos Islands.

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What should you do if you are attacked by a swarm of bees?

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The Greenland glacier is being eaten away by the warm tides stoked by global climate change.

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A proposed liquefied natural gas plant in the Florida Panhandle poses a threat to the plans for development in a Black community there.

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The unique pink river dolphins of the Amazon provide an early warning system for us in regard to the condition of the environment.

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The destruction of some ancient trees in western Canada has highlighted the porous nature of the plans to protect the old-growth forest.

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As I sit at my desk tonight, I can hear the frogs in my yard in their amphibian chorus, but are they singing at a higher pitch because of global warming? That I cannot tell.

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Thanks to melting snowpack, Lake Powell is rising more than a foot a day but that will not be enough to repair the effects of the megadrought.

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This is Chonk, a giant snapping turtle that lives in the Chicago River. As he is seen lounging by the waterside, his presence gives hope that the river may be becoming less polluted.

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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