Says it all really

 

Poetry Sunday: Fear by Khalil Gibran

Here's a thought for the coming year - a reminder to us to be brave.

Fear

by Khalil Gibran

It is said that before entering the sea
a river trembles with fear.

She looks back at the path she has traveled,
from the peaks of the mountains,
the long winding road crossing forests and villages.

And in front of her,
she sees an ocean so vast,
that to enter
there seems nothing more than to disappear forever.

But there is no other way.
The river can not go back.

Nobody can go back.
To go back is impossible in existence.

The river needs to take the risk
of entering the ocean
because only then will fear disappear,
because that’s where the river will know
it’s not about disappearing into the ocean,
but of becoming the ocean.

This week in birds - #615

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

This little cutie is the Winter Wren, a bird that nests across much of southern Canada and the northeastern United States. Some of them spend their winters with us here in southeast Texas. It is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week.

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Is it possible to unite the disparate factions of the climate movement to defend the Earth? A group in France is trying to do just that.

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A related question might be is it possible that birding could change the world? This new book tells how that might be done.

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Were our ancient ancestors more likely to be predator or prey? Perhaps we have misunderstood much about how our species evolved.

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Red wolves are an endangered species and it is important for us to help them avoid extinction. One way to do that is to help them safely cross roads.

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Balm of Gilead was a fragrant, highly prized resin in the ancient Middle East. For fourteen years, scientists have been growing a tree akin to Judean balsam, source of the balm, from a 1000-year-old seed that was found in the Judean desert.

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A SONAR camera has given proof that thousands of Chinook salmon have returned home to the Klamath River since a dam on the river was destroyed.

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You could be forgiven for thinking that the Bald Eagle has been this country's "National Bird" all along, but you would be wrong. It is only since Christmas Eve when President Biden signed a bill making it so. 

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Newly unearthed animal remains in Alaska have offered clues as to how wolves became domesticated and morphed into dogs.

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Many in Auburn, Alabama are outraged that a local developer destroyed the nest of a beloved local pair of Bald Eagles.

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The land that straddles the Finnish/Russian border is being "rewilded" and as part of that project, wild reindeer are being reintroduced to the area. No doubt Santa would approve!

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Musk oxen are being pushed farther and farther north by the warming climate. Will these mammals that survived the Ice Age now be able to survive the heat?

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These sea otters are important soldiers in the war against invasive green crabs along California's coast. 

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Farmers in the Midwest are embracing the idea of planting strips of native plants on their farmland to help reduce soil erosion.

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The Massaco people are an isolated group living in the Brazilian rainforest. They reject contact with the outside world but automatic cameras planted in the rainforest appear to show that they are thriving.

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Perentie lizards, native to Australia, are one of the world's largest lizards. The Los Angeles zoo has announced that they have been able to hatch two baby perenties. When grown, they could be as much as eight feet long. 

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The last member of another uncontacted indigenous group living in the Amazon died in 2022. What should now become of the land where he lived? 

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A surprising danger to the continued existence of sloths is electric power lines. They climb onto the lines and are sometimes electrocuted as a result.

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Humans are too often guilty of failing "see" or appreciate the plants around us. Experts call it "plant blindness" and it could cost us. 

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Restoring oyster reefs helps not only the oysters but other residents of the reef and, ultimately, humans as well. 

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Finally, here's to Flaco the owl, Moo Deng the hippo, and all the other celebrity animals that enlivened the news in 2024. What new celebrities will 2025 bring us?  

Poetry Sunday: Desiderata by Max Ehrman

I have featured Desiderata by Max Ehrman in this space before but that was more than ten years ago. It seems to me that this may be a good time to put it out there once again. Maybe this is just the counsel that we need here at the end of this fractious year:

    You are a child of the universe,

    no less than the trees and the stars;
    you have a right to be here.
    And whether or not it is clear to you,
    no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Desiderata

by Max Ehrman

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible without surrender

be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

This week in birds - #614

(Note to readers: If you are unable to access the links I provide, I suggest you query the internet about the topic to find a link available to you.)

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

It's a bird that can be found walking on mudflats, shorelines, and sandbars and it was the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week last week. It is the inconspicuous but subtly attractive American Pipit.

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And the Bird of the Week for this week is the fearsome American Goshawk.

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We rely on bottled mineral water being safe to drink but "forever chemicals" have been found in mineral water in several European countries.

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It's long been known that modern humans interbred with Neanderthals. Scientists now think they have pinpointed when that happened. 

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At least four million Common Murres have been killed by a marine heat wave in the Pacific Ocean that began ten years ago. Half the population of the birds has been wiped out and it shows no signs of recovering.

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Studies of ancient DNA suggest that syphilis originated in the Americas.

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Officials believe that "murder hornets" that were discovered in Washington State five years ago have now been eradicated from the U.S.

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Hawaiian Crows (ʻAlalās) are being reintroduced to the wild where they had been extinct for at least two decades.

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New research indicates that moths are able to hear sounds of distress made by plants. 

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The Arctic tundra has long been a cooling mechanism for the planet but now it is helping to fuel the heating of Earth. It is emitting more carbon than it absorbs.

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Monarch butterflies have long been imperiled but now the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will be adding the species to the list of "threatened species" which may provide some additional protection for them.

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Dozens of previously unknown species, including a mouse that swims, have been discovered by an expedition to the Peruvian jungle. 

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A male humpback whale has made a record journey of more than 13,000 kilometers from South America to Africa.

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Why do crocodiles have scaly heads? Scientists think they know the answer.

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As a teenager, I read The Last Days of Pompeii by Edward Bulwer-Lytton and ever since I've been fascinated by the story of that doomed city. Experts now think that Pliny's account of the eruption date was correct.

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You won't often hear of scientists calling for a halt to research but some believe that this particular research could pose an "unprecedented risk" to life on Earth. 

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Invasive Burmese pythons definitely pose an unprecedented risk to other life in the Everglades.

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The Brazilian velvet ant certainly looks like an ant but it is, in fact, a wasp.

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Japanese monkeys in a Tasmanian park will be sterilized and allowed to die out due to fears of inbreeding.

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Customs officials are always on the lookout for exotic insects and sometimes they find them.

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There is hope for the survival of the Mekong giant catfish, a critically endangered species.

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The San Antonio Zoo is celebrating the birth of Tupi, the capybara. He is rather adorable, isn't he? 

Holiday break

The Nature of Things will be taking a break for the next few days as we have guests arriving to celebrate the holidays with us and I have to get ready for them. But, never fear, I shall return (as someone once said) with more book reviews, poetry, and roundups of news from Nature. Meanwhile, I hope you are enjoying a happy and peaceful holiday season.  

The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich: A review

Any time that I learn that Louise Erdrich has published a new book, I jump on it just as quickly as I can so when I heard about The Mighty Red I made sure to get access to it as soon as possible. It did not disappoint and was, in fact, everything one could wish for in an Erdrich book.

The novel is set in the town of Argus, North Dakota, alongside the Red River that flows north through Minnesota and into Canada following the border between Minnesota and North Dakota. It is an agricultural area and the main crop is sugar beets. 

Sugar beets are the basis of the economy. Most of the families of this area are involved in some way with their production - growing them, harvesting them, transporting them, and processing them. They depend upon sugar beets and their fortunes rise or fall based on the outcome of the year's crop. 

It is 2008/2009 but the author takes us back through the beginnings of sugar beet farming along the Red River. She shows us how the use of fertilizers and pesticides and growing the same crop over and over on the land has depleted the soil. By this point, only the use of genetically modified seeds and toxic chemicals keeps the fields producing. It is a time of recession and the economic downturn has hit the already struggling community hard. 

We experience the story mostly through the character of Crystal Frechette who is a hauler of sugar beets. She works twelve-hour shifts on the highway during which she has plenty of time to worry about her 18-year-old daughter Kismet. When Crystal's husband, Martin, absconds with the town's church renovation fund, she and Kismet are left to live with the consequences of his action.

Kismet has transformed from a goth who had endured the derision of her peers and is now marrying Gary Geist who is set to inherit not one but two farms. Gary suffers from the trauma and fear resulting from a tragic accident and is ruled by his own need for redemption, while Kismet just yearns for escape. Their marriage forms the centerpiece of the novel.

Along with these characters, we also meet: Hugo, a homeschooled boy who is infatuated with Kismet; Eric, Gary's loyal friend; Winnie and Diz, Gary's parents who have their own marital struggles as well as the tension of trying to keep the farm going; and Jeniver, Crystal's lawyer, who possesses a sharp tongue to go with her brilliance. Each of these characters' stories help to fill out the portrait of a community going through changes and facing challenges.

As with so much of Erdrich's writing, the land itself is another character. The harsh climate and fertile soil of the Red River Valley helps to shape the lives of those who live there. The valley's cycle of flood and drought and of planting and harvest are metaphors for the challenges faced by its residents.

Erdrich employs multiple narrators to tell the story of people living through interwoven timelines that are a reflection of the meandering path of the river itself. By the end, she has given us a masterful story that reveals the tapestry of those lives and their environmental impact on the land they occupy. 

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

 
 

Poetry Sunday: November 6 by Chelan Harkin

This week's featured poem was written by the poet as she watched returns from  November 5's election. I came across it this past week and it spoke to me. When I found it, it did not actually have a title and so I've given it a temporary one. The poet herself may wish to give it a different name. It seems to be the call to arms that we need for "now is not the time to be afraid of the dark."

November 6

by Chelan Harkin

It’s when the earth shakes
And foundations crumble
That our light is called
To rise up.

It’s when everything falls away
And shakes us to the core
And awakens all
Of our hidden ghosts
That we dig deeper to find
Once inaccessible strength.

It’s in times when division is fierce
That we must reach for each other
And hold each other much
Much tighter.

Do not fall away now.
This is the time to rise.
Your light is being summoned.
Your integrity is being tested
That it may stand more tall.

When everything collapses
We must find within us
That which is indomitable.

Rise, and find the strength in your heart.
Rise, and find the strength in each other

Burn through your devastation,
Make it your fuel.

Bring forth your light.
Now is not the time
To be afraid of the dark.

This week in birds - #613

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

I first met the Greater Roadrunner at the Princess Movie Theater of my youth where the cartoon between the Saturday double feature regularly starred the roadrunner outwitting the dastardly but dimwitted coyote. Many years later I finally met the bird itself in a field in Texas. It did not disappoint. The American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week is currently extending its range from Mexico and the southwestern states into the states farther east. 

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Is our planet finally doomed to be drowned in a sea of plastic? The world's countries seem unable to come to an agreement on curbing plastic pollution. The greatest stumbling block to reaching such an agreement is Saudi Arabia.  

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Meanwhile, the extreme marine heat wave that hit California's coasts ten years ago may, in fact, have been a glimpse of the future.  

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And in a world that is heating up, the permafrost may not be permanent.

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In Canada, the woodland caribou population is threatened by human activities, but an Indigenous group in Quebec is working to protect them and to ensure that they survive into the future.

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How did the bond between dogs and humans come about? Scientists are finding answers to that question in ancient DNA.

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The Hawaiian crow, the Alala, went extinct in the wild decades ago, but now five of the birds have been released on Maui as part of the ongoing attempt to reestablish the bird in its native habitat. It is a second chance for these brainy birds.

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A rare attack by a polar bear in Canada ended with the bear dead and the man who tried to prevent the attack on his wife in the hospital. A neighbor came to the rescue of the man and his wife and shot the bear. It is believed that the aberrant behavior of the bear may have been provoked by changes to the climate.

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The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has been protected from drilling for the last four years but with the coming change of administrations in Washington that protection may not continue. 

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In Scotland, the bumblebee population has made a dramatic recovery thanks to a rewilding project.

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An ancient forest in Tasmania teems with an astonishing variety of wildlife.

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The latest fashion trend among orcas in the Puget Sound is dead salmon hats.

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Pufferfish are cute and toxic and, just perhaps, Nature's greatest artist.

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Did hunting by early Americans help lead to the extinction of megafauna?

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The keepers at a bird park in England kept waiting for their "female" King Penguin to lay an egg, but it turns out Maggie the penguin is actually Magnus. 

Midnight and Blue by Ian Rankin: A review

One of my favorite writers of mysteries for many years has been Ian Rankin. By now, his main character, Inspector John Rebus, feels like an old friend. A rather disreputable but never dull old friend. This is the twenty-fifth Rebus mystery and I've read them all. I'm happy to say that the quality of the writing has not flagged.

Midnight and Blue finds the now former Inspector Rebus in prison, HMP Saughton in Edinburgh. He is serving his sentence alongside gang leader Daryl Christie, who "runs" Trinity Hall where Rebus is housed. Christie has vowed to protect Rebus because he is grateful for his role in the death of Morris Gerald ("Big Ger") Cafferty who long-time readers of the series remember as Rebus' nemesis.

When we meet Rebus this time, he has already spent three months mingling with the general prison population at Saughton and getting to know them. Then, one of his fellow prisoners, a minor thief named Jackie Simpson, is murdered in his cell and the former DCI has a new mystery to solve.

DS Christine Esson and her new partner DI Jason Mulgrew are assigned to investigate the murder, but, for some reason, DI Malcolm Fox, formerly part of the Professional Standards unit but now in Organized Crime, also seems quite interested in the case. We learn that Simpson was one of Fox's snitches, although he doesn't inform the investigating team of that fact. 

While Rebus has been in prison, his former partner DI Siobhan Clarke has visited him regularly. She's now partnered with DS Cameron Colson, a particularly gloomy and irritating character who must be a trial to Clarke's patience. The two of them are currently charged with investigating the disappearance of 14-year-old Jasmine Andrews who left school one day and never made it home. When Fox discovers information that is relevant to the case of the missing girl, in typical Fox fashion, he fails to share it with Clarke or Colson. 

This is a story with many twists and turns, a trademark of the Rebus mystery series.  Even after all these years, Ian Rankin still manages to make the plot of each novel feel fresh and entertaining. And surprising. Every time I thought I had things figured out, some new detail threw me for a loop. It is the mark of this very good writer of mysteries to keep astonishing us with the creativity of his storylines. Long may he continue!

My rating: 4 of 5 stars