This week in birds

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. H alf 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?

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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