The Nature of Things

How about a little Shakespeare to brighten your Sunday? This is actually one of my favorites of his sonnets. I have featured it here before but it was way back in 2018, practically a lifetime ago!  He's writing here about just this time of year but also about this time of life - the autumn of our years. He speaks of the "boughs which shake against the cold...where late the sweet birds sang." There are no boughs shaking against the cold here where daytime temperatures still reach around 90 degrees F. But I am in my autumn and winter is coming. Sonnet 73: That time of year thou mayst in me behold by William Shakespeare That time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. In me thou see'st the twilight of such day As after sunset fadeth in the west, Which by and by black night doth take away, Death's second self, that seals up al...

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment :  These are Lava Gulls , a bird of the coastlines of the islands in the  Galápagos archipelago. The species is endemic to that island chain and it occurs nowhere else. Unlike other gulls and terns, it is a solitary nester and it maintains a large territory which it defends aggressively against intruders. It is an adept flyer but tends to stick close to shore.  The Lava Gull is the  American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week .  *~*~*~* Remembering Jane Goodall ... *~*~*~* The current administration "leading" this country is certainly no friend of climate science but climate scientists are doing their best to keep the issue alive and in the public eye . *~*~*~* India's first Red List of Endangered Species was to be revealed this week at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. *~*~*~* Our president has this week frozen billions i...

The Picture of Dorian Gray  

This one has been featured here before - actually more than once, but it is a favorite of mine and, after all, a great poem bears reading and rereading. So, here it is again, the tale of the caged bird that sings "of things unknown but longed for still." It's a tale that could apply to many, I think. I hope you like it as much as I do.   Caged Bird by Maya Angelou A free bird leaps on the back of the wind and floats downstream till the current ends and dips his wing in the orange sun rays and dares to claim the sky. But a bird that stalks down his narrow cage can seldom see through his bars of rage his wings are clipped and    his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing. The caged bird sings    with a fearful trill    of things unknown    but longed for still    and his tune is heard    on the distant hill    for the caged bird    sings of freedom. The f...

  A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : This is a Black Phoebe . It is a resident near watery landscape features all along the west coast of North America and down into Central America and along the western coast of South America. Like other phoebes, it often nests near humans and even in or on human structures. Its population is increasing all along its range. It is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week . *~*~*~* Jane Goodall became my hero when I first read about her in the pages of the National Geographic back in the 1960s. I've followed her career ever since and I am saddened to know she is no longer physically among us, but what a legacy she has left! *~*~*~* And at the opposite end of the spectrum, what a legacy this man will leave as he wages war on clean energy and seeks to revive "big coal." *~*~*~* Scientists now believe our species could be older than previously thought, based on the reconstruction of a million-year-o...

I seem to be stuck in the poetry of my youth these days. ( I really need to read more current-day poets! ) And this is one of the very earliest poems I can remember. After all these years, it is still a favorite. The Tyger by William Blake Tyger Tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night; What immortal hand or eye,  Could frame thy fearful symmetry? In what distant deeps or skies.  Burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand, dare seize the fire? And what shoulder, & what art, Could twist the sinews of thy heart? And when thy heart began to beat. What dread hand? & what dread feet? What the hammer? what the chain, In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? what dread grasp. Dare its deadly terrors clasp? When the stars threw down their spears  And water'd heaven with their tears: Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the Lamb make thee? Tyger Tyger burning bright, In the forests of the night: What immortal hand or ...

  A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : This is the Rough-legged Hawk , a bird that breeds in the Arctic and subarctic regions of the world and migrates south during the winter months.  During nonbreeding months, the birds migrate to a wide swath of the mid-section of North America. Some even get as far south as north and west Texas and northern Mexico. It's unlikely that the migrating hawks would get as far south as southeast Texas so I won't be expecting to see one in my backyard! This magnificent bird is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week . *~*~*~* It seems that we humans are having an effect on animal evolution . *~*~*~* U.S. rivers are heating up in an unprecedented way . *~*~*~* At least fifteen of the world's important archaeological sites are being threatened by the effects of climate change. *~*~*~* And speaking of archaeological sites, archaeologists have uncovered the treasure-filled tomb of the first known ruler of t...