This week in birds

This week in birds - #590

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

This white buffalo (bison) calf was born recently in Yellowstone National Park. For the Lakota people it is seen as the fulfillment of a prophecy.

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The Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia has proved extremely deadly this year because of the extreme heat. At least 1300 people have died due to heat-related factors.

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For those who live in areas not strongly affected by city lights, the coming weeks offer some prime summer night sky viewing interest.

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A rise in wildfires is being driven by the effects of climate change.

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Many wild things have adapted to living in our cities.

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Colombia is a bird-watchers paradise and, now that a peace deal between warring parties there has been agreed to, it is expected that more birders will be making trips to the country.

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Marine life traffickers are busily smuggling corals into the country.

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Traffickers are far from the only hazard faced by coral reefs; coral bleaching is doing untold damage to them, including to the Great Barrier Reef. Meanwhile, UNESCO is urging Australia to do more to protect the reef and preserve its status as a world heritage site.

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Scientists say that the potential melting of the ice sheets could mean a devastating rise in sea levels. Such rises could render some states such as Florida and California unlivable.

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Butterflies crossing the ocean? Apparently, the Painted Ladies can and have.

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The cute little Eared Grebe, a worldwide waterbird, is this week's American Bird Conservancy "Bird of the Week."

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A fatal fungus has devastated the world's amphibians but this fungus has a weakness - it can't tolerate heat.

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Moose were introduced in Colorado in the 1970s and they have been very successful. Maybe too successful.

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Here's a look at the Housatonic River that runs through the Berkshire Mountains.

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And here's a look at the rhesus macaque monkeys that live on a small island off the southeastern coast of Puerto Rico.

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The Iberian lynx, with some help from conservationists, is making a comeback on the Iberian peninsula after almost becoming extinct there.

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As Afghans attempt to shift away from growing opium poppies to other field crops and fruit trees, climate change is making the transition difficult.

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Wild chimpanzees have been observed medicating themselves with wild plants.

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What finished off the last of the woolly mammoths? Scientists suspect a "freak event" was the culprit.

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The attempt to preserve a population of European wildcats in the U.K. has been buoyed by the recent birth of wildcat kittens in a national park there.

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What do six million antelope look like? There are pictures of that many animals recently migrating between national parks in South Sudan.

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Building a tunnel under Stonehenge does not seem like a very good idea to me but evidently that is going to happen. It has caused UNESCO officials to recommend putting the site on the list of world heritage sites that are in danger.

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A Bronze Age site has been discovered under a sports field in Cardiff.

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A Greater Flamingo is spending its summer in the Hamptons and is causing quite a stir among the human residents there.

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Pacific gray whales born in this century seem to be growing shorter than those of previous centuries. Suspicions are that it is related to the climate.

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Islands that were expected to be inundated by the rising seas of climate change surprisingly seem to be doing just fine.

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A new book details the subterranean microbial life that shapes our planet.

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The pandas are coming! The pandas are coming! The San Diego Zoo will soon be receiving two giant pandas from China, the first to enter this country in over two decades.

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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