This week in birds

This week in birds - #566

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

A flotilla of Canada Geese enjoying an early autumn swim.

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Some places on this continent have already experienced their first freeze of the season but not us! We're still in the mid-80s to 90s here in Southeast Texas and don't expect our first freeze until about December.

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Speaking of freezing, Antarctica has just recorded its sixth-lowest record of sea ice. And the annual peak was the lowest ever recorded.

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Looking into the future - way into the future - scientists say Earth could become uninhabitable in 250 million years after the formation of a supercontinent.

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In our own time, a heat dome has roasted much of the continent this summer leaving a wide swath of it feeling almost uninhabitable.

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Climate change presents challenges to many species and some, including many amphibians, may not be able to adapt.

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The angel shark is one of the world's most elusive sharks but trails of its DNA are helping scientists to find it.

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Here is the week in wildlife pictures from The Guardian.

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Canada's wild horses are beloved by the public but they are having a devastating impact on biodiversity.

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The Bolson tortoise is North America's largest and rarest tortoise species. The length of its lifespan is unknown so protecting and preserving it is a long-term affair.

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This is the Long-billed Curlew and its movements can tell scientists quite a lot about the health of the prairie.

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Chinese water deer may be losing ground in their native China but they've found a home in Britain.

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Good news for cows and for the environment: A Swedish report says that feeding the animals seaweed could cut methane emissions.

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These ancient footprints at White Sands National Park in New Mexico are evidence that humans walked on this continent at least 21,000 to 23,000 years ago.

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We have two "Birds of the Week" since I last posted TWIB:

This is the Palila, or Finch-billed Honeycreeper, a critically endangered Hawaiian species that was the bird of the week last week.

And here is the BOTW for this week - the Marbled Murrelet.

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Mesolithic-era items found in a cave in Spain show that our hunter-gatherer ancestors were making baskets much earlier than had previously been believed.

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There is reason to fear that a huge escape of thousands of farmed salmon in Iceland could devastate local wild salmon populations.

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Here are a few autumn photos from Lake Erie Metropark in southeast Michigan.

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Is El Niño gathering its forces to zap us this winter?

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Paleontologists in Egypt have found an eight-foot-long whale that lived in Earth's waters 41 million years ago.

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Some American Flamingos that stopped off at Lake Michigan on their migration south for the winter gave local Wisconsonite birders a thrill.

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Archaeologists who explore glaciers recently found an intact 3,000-year-old arrow in Norway.

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A NASA spacecraft has recently returned home with a cosmic gift - a piece of the asteroid Bennu.

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A fossil-rich desert in Peru is being threatened by human settlement.

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Sites in Ohio do not get the same attention as the Egyptian pyramids but they could be just as vital to human history.

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Every tree is amazing in my view but here are eight that are deemed the "world's most amazing."

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Climate change may be affecting the female-to-male balance in some populations of turtles.

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Rice's whale, a species of whale discovered in the Gulf of Mexico only two years ago, is one of the most endangered marine mammals in the world.

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This little beauty is the Fiery-throated Hummingbird, a resident of high elevations in Costa Rica and western Panama.

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Amidst all the doom and gloom surrounding news of climate change, there may actually be a ray of hope.

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A reminder for residents of Texas to do their part to protect the migrants now streaming through our state. The lights can disorient birds and cause them to go astray and sometimes fly into high-rise buildings.

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And, finally, just because it's my favorite sign of the week -

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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