This week in birds

This week in birds - #569

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

Dark-eyed Junco - a favorite winter visitor to my yard. They generally arrive here in late November/early December.

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The junco is one of the birds that might be appearing on my FeederWatch reports. Project FeederWatch begins on November 1. You can sign up here.

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So, the country gained a new Speaker of the House this week. A champion of fossil fuels and a doubter of human-caused climate change, he is not good news for anyone who cares about the environment.

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And in other sad news of and for the environment, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this week declared twenty-one species extinct.

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Unfortunately, protecting the land and environment is not always popular in some of the places that most need protecting.

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Yellowstone National Park represents one of this country's early efforts to protect the environment and one of its best-known attractions is home to an amazing diversity of microbial life.

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Here's a heartening story of how a farmer decided to turn his farm into a wildlife sanctuary.

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We know that plants can communicate with each other but how do they warn other plants when danger is near?

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The West Antarctic ice sheet is irreversibly melting and creating a rise in sea level as it does so.

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Domestic cats could evolve into the alpha predators of the future. As one who lives with cats, I do not doubt it.

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And here's some alarming news: Bird flu has reached the Antarctic for the first time.

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Chickens are a lot smarter than many people give them credit for. As someone who grew up with a farmyard full of chickens, I knew that!

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Global warming impacts the nonhuman world even as it impacts us.

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A beloved ancient pear tree, felled to make way for a highway, has a new life.

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The Turkey Vulture is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week. It is omnipresent in Southeast Texas skies, most often in the company of its cousin the Black Vulture, as well as, occasionally, the Caracara.

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A volcanic eruption in January 2022 was so intense that it temporarily depleted Earth's ozone layer.

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Sheep lawnmowers - could this catch on with the public? I really like the idea!

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And then there is the javelina which has its own ideas about lawn care.

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It turns out that our country provides a safe hiding place for the dirty money of environmental criminals.

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A charismatic species, the Burrowing Owl, is in population decline as are many grassland birds.

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A California otter, called 841, that became famous for harassing Santa Cruz surfers has given birth. She was photographed with her new pup this week.

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Our cousins, the chimpanzees, go through menopause just like humans.

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There are two yellowlegs species - the Greater Yellowlegs and the Lesser Yellowlegs. It's not always easy to tell which is which.

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This will be the planet's warmest year on record and the heat records continue to be shattered.

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A twelve million-year-old great ape fossil could reveal clues about our origins. Scientists have reconstructed the fossil's face.

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A rewilding project in the U.K. is helping to bring endangered species back from the brink.

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Barn Swallows - amazing flyers!

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American Flamingos are also amazing flyers but even they can be blown off course by hurricane winds. That's what happened to a couple that ended up in Chincoteague, Virginia recently.

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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