Bad Optics by Joseph Heywood: A review

This is the eleventh book in this series set in Michigan and featuring Conservation Officer Grady Service. I haven't read all of them, but I have read and enjoyed several.

This one finds Service at loose ends, having been suspended from his job. His crime had been teaming up with a rather notorious lawbreaker (poacher Limpy Allerdyce) in order to stop poachers and other violators of the deer hunting laws. But Service is incapable of just sitting around and so he continues patrolling his territory, the Mosquito Wilderness Area, voluntarily and unofficially.

Grady resents what he feels is the unfairness of his suspension and he begins to suspect that there is something rotten in Lansing that may be behind it all. He is a stubborn man and he is determined to get to the bottom of what he sees as political shenanigans. 

Once again he enlists the aid of Limpy and his fellow Vietnam vet and game warden Luticious Treebone. (You have to love these names!) Their investigation determines that someone is trying to illegally commercialize the Mosquito and Grady realizes that the wilderness he loves and protects could be destroyed if he doesn't stop them.

These are quirky and memorable characters and they are a lot of fun to read about. There's nothing particularly deep or complicated about the story. It is generally well-written but doesn't tax the brain so I would characterize it as a good read for a hot summer day. 
 

Poetry Sunday: An August Cricket by Arthur Goodenough

So, I was sitting on my patio late Saturday afternoon enjoying the "coolness" that comes with that time of day. Well, in late August in Southeast Texas, it is not exactly what one could call coolness, but the sun had gone to its rest behind the trees and so the temperature had become bearable. All was quiet and then behind me near our little goldfish pond, the August crickets began their "healing melody." And yes, I did feel "renewed in frame and spirit" as Arthur Goodenough expressed it so well.

An August Cricket

by Arthur Goodenough

When August days are hot and long,
And the August hills are hazy,
And clouds are slow and winds also,
And brooks are low and lazy.

When beats the fierce midsummer sun,
Upon the drying grasses;
A modest minstrel sings his song
To any soul that passes.

A modest, yet insistent bard
Who while the landscape slumbers;
And Nature seems, herself asleep,
Pours out his soul in numbers.

His song is in a tongue unknown,
Yet those, methink, who hear it
Drink in it's healing melody
Renewed in frame and spirit.

His life is brief as is the leaf
To summer branches clinging!
But yet no thought of death or grief,
He mentions in his singing.

No epic strain is his to sing;—
No tale of loss or glory;—
He has no borrowed heroines;
His heroes are not gory.

He is no scholar; all he knows
Was taught by his condition,
He never studied synthesis,
Nor simple composition.

His lays are all of rustic themes;
Of summer's joys and treasure
Yet scarce could Homer's masterpiece,
Afford us keener pleasure.

This week in birds - #561

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

It's beautyberry season in my yard. The berries come in purple like these and in white. I have some of each and both colors are equally loved by the birds who will feast on them and strip them away pretty soon.

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Summer's incredible heat continues to be the main news in Nature. All of the northern continents are basically broiling at the moment.

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As Earth heats up, its birds, like this Willow Flycatcher, are adapting. 

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In some good news for the planet, Ecuadorians have voted to halt drilling for oil in an Amazonian national park.

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This is the ‘akikiki, a critically endangered Hawaiian bird. Its caretakers are struggling to preserve and bring it back and now they face the new threat of the Maui wildfires.

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In New Haven, Connecticut, an 82-year-old man is on a mission to convince his neighbors to plant more trees.

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The oldest yet fossil of a dicraeosaurid (plant-eating) dinosaur has been found in the Thar Desert of India.

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Is the warming ocean a threat to some of the fish that live in it? It seems that the damselfish may be in distress because of the heat.

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Massive winter downpours have resulted in unprecedented blooms in California which has been a boon to conservationists collecting seeds to preserve endangered plants.

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Crocodiles are very vocal reptiles and scientists are eager to try to understand what they are saying.

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An unprecedented flash flood in the Grand Canyon this week caused about 100 people to have to be evacuated from the area.

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This bird looks too incredible to actually be real but it is. It is a Brazilian bird called the Gilt-edged Tanager and it is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week.

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A recent study found that mountain treelines are moving higher in response to climate change.

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The last two survivors of Brazil's Piripkura tribe have been found and now the question is what Brazil should do regarding them. 

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This is a rare spotless giraffe that was born recently at a zoo in Tennessee.

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Off the coast of California, female pearl octopuses are nesting, creating an "octopus garden" where they protect their eggs. 

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A hot, wet summer is threatening to put a damper on the leaf-peeping season in the Northeast.

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Geckos are famous for their ability to camouflage themselves but this one from Madagascar may be the champion in that regard.

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Finally, here are a few bird pictures from a wonderful spot for viewing birds, the Bosque del Apache refuge in New Mexico.

Two reviews

Once again I have fallen behind on my goal of completing a review of every book that I read. It seems that I read faster than I write. In an attempt to close the gap a bit, here are a couple of brief reviews of books that I have recently read.

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Homecoming by Kate Morton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This historical fiction/mystery thriller is set in Australia and features a journalist named Jess who had lived in London for almost twenty years. In 2019, she finds herself laid off from her job and struggling to make ends meet. In the midst of this financial calamity, she is called home to Sydney because her grandmother who had raised her had suffered a fall and been hospitalized.

Jess arrives at the hospital to find her grandmother confused and looking very frail. Moreover, her grandmother's housekeeper tells her that her grandmother had been confused for weeks and had fallen on the steps to her attic, a place where Jess had always been forbidden to go.

Snooping later in her grandmother's house, Jess finds a true crime book that chronicles the police investigation into the murder of a family named Turner on Christmas Eve, 1959. Furthermore, she finds that the book details a connection between her own family and that infamous crime. What a perfect assignment for an unemployed journalist - investigating an unsolved murder from long ago. Especially one that might in some way involve her own family.

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Old God's Time by Sebastian Barry

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book takes us to Ireland and into the life of recently retired policeman Tom Kettle. Tom is sixty-six years old and has been retired for nine months. He spends his time remembering his life with his wife, daughter, and son who are all now lost to him. Tom is alone and living with his sadness. He is a gentle man who always tries to do what is right. He is a prime example that bad things happen to good people.

Tom is contacted by officers from the police station where he was formerly stationed. They are seeking information from him from long ago that relates to a current case they are working involving child abuse and Catholic priests. This leads Tom to memories of his own past as he struggles to find a way to deal with his life in the present.

This is a story that is full of sadness and it also involves a bit of a mystery from one of Tom's long ago cases. It is in many ways a depressing story but it is beautifully written and although it is a bit of a difficult read, I found it to be ultimately rewarding. 

Poetry Sunday: August by Ed Blair

Late August here in Southeast Texas is something to be endured rather than enjoyed. We are in a series of days with triple-digit degree Fahrenheit weather and we can't look for much relief until the calendar leaf turns over. Rain would be most welcome but does not appear to be in the offing anytime soon. When we go outside, we head for the shade of one of those oak trees that we were smart enough to plant when we moved here many years ago. They tower over the yard now and provide protection from the blasting rays of the sun. But all the vegetation is suffering from our long dry spell. September is coming and let us hope it brings rain but, in the meantime, August burns us.

August

by Ed Blair

The August sun is pouring on the land,
His scorching rays, and vegetation stands
Beseeching to the skies for showers again
And being answered like the prayers of men.

Along the creeks the white rocks heat and glow,
As it some one had built great fires below,
And cattle stand in stagnant pools to fight
The pestering flies that trouble day and night.

In vain we look for those refreshing showers
That come so oft in Spring at call of flowers,
But clouds come to our view, then pass away,
And leave us in despair at close of day.

This week in birds - #560

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

Okay, it's not a bird but it is a representative of the most numerous of the "fliers" in my backyard at the moment. It is a Cloudless Sulphur butterfly sipping from the blossoms of Hamelia patens, aka Firebush. 

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Of course, the main news of Nature for us on this continent this week was all related to wildfires.

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Wildfires in British Columbia were forcing evacuations. 

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The island of Maui in Hawaii was one of the latest places to suffer the destructive forces of wildfires.

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It became clear that nonnative plants had fueled the Hawaiian wildfires.

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In the historic town of Lahaina, a 150-year-old banyan tree was charred but still standing after the fires and has apparently survived them.

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The staff of the Maui Bird Conservation Center fought the flames to save the endangered birds housed there. 

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Back in the Canadian city of Yellowknife, residents were given until noon on Friday to leave town ahead of the advancing flames.

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And if it wasn't the heat from wildfires, it was the heat from that orange orb in the sky that was causing misery in many places, not least of which was Texas.

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A United Nations climate expert warned this week that the world's food supply is threatened by global heating.

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This magnificent, prehistoric-looking bird is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week. It's the Brown Pelican, one of my favorite birds of the Gulf Coast.

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Off the Alaska coast, explorers are studying some of the world's deepest and most remote waters. 

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In California, a new pack of gray wolves has been discovered in Tulare County.

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And in northern California, the Winnemem Wintu Tribe is working to return Chinook salmon to their ancestral waters.

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Is it possible for the world to kick its coal habit? There is hope.

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Paradoxically, it seems that the way to save the redwood forest may involve the judicious use of chain saws.

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The farming of kelp is yet another enterprise that is threatened by the heating up of the world's oceans. 

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Trout introduced into Wyoming lakes have shown an ability to evolve rapidly in order to take advantage of their new habitat.

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Proof that perhaps the human race is not entirely hopeless: This man uses an ultralight aircraft to teach endangered Ibises their migration route.

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Great white sharks are normally solitary creatures, but two that were fitted with tracking devices off the coast of Georgia last December have confounded their trackers by continuing to travel together.

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And more hope for the future: Some young Montanans have just held their government accountable for exacerbating the climate crisis and violating their fundamental constitutional rights. More of this, please!

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - August 2023

Here we are at the fifteenth of the month again, a day on which I used to regularly participate in Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. I haven't done a Bloom Day post in recent months but I decided it was time to jump in once again. So here are some pictures of what is blooming in my hot - very hot! - Southeast Texas garden this Bloom Day. Full disclosure: These pictures were taken earlier because it is just too damned hot to be out there with a camera today. Our high today is expected to be 104 degrees Fahrenheit. It's not quite there yet, but it will be.

The heat doesn't bother 'Pride of Barbados,' of course. In fact, it seems to relish it. The hotter it gets the more it blooms.

Perhaps it is not a coincidence that in the hottest month of the year, many of my blooms are also in very hot colors, like this Justicia 'Orange Flame.'

Nothing discourages this old crape myrtle.

And, of course, neither heat nor our lack of rain is a problem for the water lilies.

That is also true of the blue plumbago, one of my few "cool" bloomers.

Purslane blooms in a pot on a patio table.

And here it is in another color.

'Turk's Cap' is another bloomer undaunted by heat. 

The old milkweed, butterfly weed, likewise seems to relish the heat.

Hamelia patens, aka Firebush. Its common name describes it well. It blooms from spring until about late November or December when our first heavy frost finally knocks it back. 

And there you have it - a tour of the blooms in my garden that are able to survive drought and heat. Tough plants all and how I do appreciate them!

Poetry Sunday: August by Ed Blair

The August heat has been close to unbearable recently. My heart goes out to those who must work outside in this weather. Indeed, even the vegetation stands "beseeching to the skies for showers...," but there seems to be no relief in sight and so we and the vegetation must endure and hope that September comes soon.

August

by Ed Blair

The August sun is pouring on the land,
His scorching rays, and vegetation stands
Beseeching to the skies for showers again
And being answered like the prayers of men.

Along the creeks the white rocks heat and glow,
As it some one had built great fires below,
And cattle stand in stagnant pools to fight
The pestering flies that trouble day and night.

In vain we look for those refreshing showers
That come so oft in Spring at call of flowers,
But clouds come to our view, then pass away,
And leave us in despair at close of day.

This week in birds - #559

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

Perhaps the most popular of backyard birds in North America - the Northern Cardinal, in this case, the showy male. But for my money, the more delicately colored female may be even more attractive.

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Southern Californians and Nevadans have had their hands more than full fighting wildfires recently. 

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At one year old, the U.S. climate law is already having a major impact on encouraging the production of clean energy.

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The world is moving toward deep-sea mining and so far there are no rules to regulate it.

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Protecting krill will help to preserve the whole ecosystem of which they are a part.

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August is a great month to be a sky-watcher. With the Perseid meteor shower and not one but two "blue moons," there's a lot going on up there.

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Have the roles of women in the ancient world been misinterpreted? Since most of that interpretation has been done by men, I'd say there is a distinct possibility!

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It's winter in South America now but some areas are experiencing temperatures in excess of 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

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Otis the grizzly has returned to Katmai National Park in Alaska to feast on its salmon and that is good news to his many fans - if not to the salmon.

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In an urgent attempt to save Florida's coral from excessive heat in the ocean, teams are moving some of it out of the sea and into tanks where it can be protected.

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And scientists describe that ocean heat as "astonishing." It has set record highs this year. It seems that we are now in the era of "global boiling."

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It's winter in Antarctica but the production of sea ice is at a very concerning record low.

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As the production of sea ice diminishes, the sea level rises.

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One effort to repair damage to the environment involves rebuilding coral reefs.

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It is estimated that there are more than 900 at-risk species that still lack international trade protections.

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Power lines are a danger to birds but not because they might be electrocuted - because they might be shot while sitting on them.

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Jellyfish have been floating around Earth's oceans for a very long time. A 505 million-year-old fossil proves it. 

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This is the Kākāpō, the world's only flightless parrot. It has teetered on the edge of extinction for decades, but efforts to save it have now resulted in its return to its native land of New Zealand.

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When I studied world history in college (about a hundred years ago), we learned about the "Fertile Crescent." Sadly, it seems that it has now become the infertile crescent.

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But there is actually some good news; Amazon deforestation has fallen by more than 60% compared to last July.

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And date palms are absolutely thriving in Arizona's desert heat.

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This is the gorgeous ‘Apapane, a bird of Hawaii and the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week.

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The Blackfeet tribe has been instrumental in returning the American buffalo, the bison, to its native habitat.

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Fall migration is already underway and the Purple Martins are gathering in Nashville.

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President Biden has designated a new national monument near the Grand Canyon, an action that will prevent uranium mining there. 

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An ancient whale may have been the heaviest animal ever to exist on the planet. And in our own time, three humpback whales recently put on a remarkable ballet for the videographers. 

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Conservation efforts are facing a funding shortage but three bills in Congress could help close the gap.

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In our admiration for butterflies, we risk unappreciating their cousins, the moths.

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Hydrothermal vents in the ocean are habitats for some of the weirdest animals on Earth.

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Why would you want to attract bats to your yard? Why wouldn't you? They are amazing and useful creatures.  

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Finally, a man in Kansas planted more than a million sunflowers as a 50th-anniversary gift to his wife. I like his thinking!

Weekend hiatus

 The Nature of Things is on hiatus this weekend so no "This Week in Birds" or "Poetry Sunday" posts. They will return next weekend. Thank you for looking or them.