The Nature of Things

My father was a farmer and my mother was a farm wife, and being a farm wife in those days meant preserving things. Like blackberries. But before they could be preserved, they had to be picked. I remember so many hot summer days when she would drag my unwilling corpus out to the blackberry briar patch to be pricked and scratched as we picked those luscious berries. Unlike Seamus Heaney's experience, our berries never went to rot. My mother soon turned them into jellies, jams, preserves - they were delicious and were a comfort to us through the long, cold winters, a reminder that summer would come again.  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 for Picking. Then red ones inked up and t...

  A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : The American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week is another Hawaiian species, the  ʻAlawī , a small, inconspicuous  honeycreeper. There are four disjunct populations of the bird on the big island, Hawaii. Each of the populations is nonmigratory and show strong site fidelity throughout the year. *~*~*~* Light pollution at night is a big problem for birds during migration and there is a movement afoot to "take back the night" and change that.  *~*~*~* Streaked Shearwaters spend much of their time in the air and a lot of that time they are pooping ! This behavior was accidentally discovered through video coverage that was meant to investigate something else altogether. *~*~*~* A partial dire wolf skull (a species that went extinct around the end of the last ice age) that is set to be auctioned is expected to bring as much as $30,000 .  *~*~*~* Our current president is strongly anti-environment and is ...

Have you ever been haunted by the song of a bird that you didn't recognize? Edward Thomas could relate.   The Unknown Bird by Edward Thomas Three lovely notes he whistled, too soft to be heard If others sang; but others never sang In the great beech-wood all that May and June. No one saw him: I alone could hear him Though many listened. Was it but four years Ago? or five? He never came again.   Oftenest when I heard him I was alone, Nor could I ever make another hear. La-la-la! he called, seeming far-off— As if a cock crowed past the edge of the world, As if the bird or I were in a dream. Yet that he travelled through the trees and sometimes Neared me, was plain, though somehow distant still He sounded. All the proof is—I told men What I had heard.                                      I never knew a voice...

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment :  This is the Hawaiʻi ʻĀkepa , an endangered Hawaiian species that is this week's American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week . It is only found now on the island of  Hawaiʻi  although in the past it was present on other islands in the group. Habitat destruction and degradation are contributing to the bird's decreasing numbers. *~*~*~* Monarch butterflies will soon be beginning their migration south through the western states.   *~*~*~* A new study has found that clues to Earth's climate past can be found in dinosaur teeth. *~*~*~* Following the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeii, survivors of the catastrophe continued to live amid the rubble of the city for hundreds of years. *~*~*~* Humans are having an effect on animal evolution . *~*~*~* Rabbits in northern Colorado are sprouting horn-like growths on their faces. *~*~*~* Misinformation is affecting Oregon's response to the wildfire...

August 9 marks the beginning of another year in my life. My family celebrated on Saturday. It was a quiet celebration - the best kind. Maya Angelou would agree.  On Aging by Maya Angelou When you see me sitting quietly, Like a sack left on the shelf, Don’t think I need your chattering. I’m listening to myself. Hold! Stop! Don’t pity me! Hold! Stop your sympathy! Understanding if you got it, Otherwise I’ll do without it! When my bones are stiff and aching, And my feet won’t climb the stair, I will only ask one favor: Don’t bring me no rocking chair. When you see me walking, stumbling, Don’t study and get it wrong. ‘Cause tired don’t mean lazy And every goodbye ain’t gone. I’m the same person I was back then, A little less hair, a little less chin, A lot less lungs and much less wind. But ain’t I lucky I can still breathe in.

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : The American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week is a small Hawaiian honeycreeper called the  Maui ʻAlauahio.  The bird can only be found in montane forests above 4,500 feet in altitude on the slopes of the Haleakalā volcano in east Maui.  It has been extirpated from the western part of Maui as its required habitat has been destroyed  by the overgrazing of animals like feral cattle, sheep, pigs, and goats. Feral pigs also dig wallows that serve as breeding areas for introduced, disease-carrying mosquitoes. Important forest habitat has also been lost to human settlements. As a result, this bird's status is "endangered" and it is decreasing in numbers.  *~*~*~* This may be the only recorded instance of a fish causing a fire ! *~*~*~* The Monarch butterfly die-off in California in 2024 was likely caused by exposure to pesticide , according to research. *~*~*~* Many of the National Weather Service jobs th...