This week in birds - #624

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

This dapper looking guy is the Black-headed Grosbeak, also called the Western Grosbeak and it is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week. It can be found throughout western North America in its preferred habitat of forests and forest edges. It sometimes hybridizes with the Rose-breasted Grosbeak where the two species' ranges overlap. 

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The Environmental Protection Agency in its current iteration appears not to be mainly interested in protecting the environment.

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It isn't often that a previously unknown plant is discovered in one of our national parks, but that is what has just happened in Big Bend National Park. 

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The Musk/Trump administration's mass firing of federal employees has hit hard at the agencies that manage and protect our national parks and lands. The Forest Service firings in particular have wreaked havoc on rural areas.

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The American chestnut tree has been virtually extirpated by blight but is there a chance that we could bring it back?

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The Guardian is inviting us to nominate our candidates for "Invertebrate of the Year."

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A "superpod" of some 2,000 dolphins has been creating a spectacle for viewing in Monterey Bay off California's coast.

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When I was a child, I had measles and was probably as sick as I have ever been in my life. Unfortunately, the disease, which is now perfectly preventable with vaccination, is once again raging in west Texas where at least one child has already died.

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A growing commercial trade in corals is exploiting an already threatened ecosystem.

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Replanting seagrass meadows is helping fish, protecting coastlines, and absorbing climate-heating carbon dioxide.

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In Lake Superior, lake trout have rebounded following overfishing in the last century, largely thanks to a lamprey removal program.

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Under this malign administration, the USDA has deleted vital climate information from its website. After all, why would farmers need to know about climate/weather? The farmers are suing.

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In Denmark, a woodhenge, similar to the United Kingdom's Stonehenge, has been uncovered. It would seem to support the theory that the belief system behind the henges was widespread. 

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This is a Plains-wanderer, a bird of the grasslands of Australia. Their coloration helps hide them from predators but also makes it difficult for researchers to find them.

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A twenty-year study has found that the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park in the 1990s has helped the entire ecosystem to thrive.

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Quilting was not only a tradition among Black women of the South; my mother and all my aunts on both sides of the family were quilters. I grew up sleeping under those quilts and I still have several of them which I treasure.  

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No-till farming is apparently having a rebirth in the present century. And that is probably a good thing for the soil.

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Are there plenty of fish in the sea? The elephant seals know.

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Urban farmers in the Los Angeles area are planning to rebuild after the devastating wildfires there.

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It seems that early humans thrived in the rainforests as well as the savannas of Africa.

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Otay Mountain in San Diego County, California, faces many threats. Its protection is important to the maintaining of biodiversity on the border between the U.S. and Mexico.

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Critically endangered red colobus monkeys are making a comeback in the woodlands of the Niger Delta. 

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An opossum in Omaha seems to be a particular fan of chocolate cakes!

Poetry Sunday: Sideman by Paul Muldoon

And now for something completely different... 

Sideman

by Paul Muldoon

I’ll be the Road Runner
To your Wile E Coyote

I’ll take you in my stride

I’ll be a Sancho Panza

To your Don Quixote

Your ever faithful guide

I’ll stand by you in the lists

With our market strategists

I’ll be your sideman, baby,

I’ll be by your side

I’ll be a Keith Richards

To your Mick Jagger

Before he let things slide

I’ll be Sears to your Roebuck

Before he took the headstaggers

And opened nationwide

I'll support you at Wembley

I may require some assembly

But I'll be your sideman, baby,

I'll be by your side

I’ll be McCartney to your Lennon

Lenin to your Marx

Jerry to your Ben &

Lewis to your Clark

Burke to your Hare

James Bond to your Q

Booboo to your Yogi Bear

Tigger to your Pooh

Trigger to your Roy Rogers

Roy to your Siegfried

Fagin to your Artful Dodger

I guess I’ll let you take the lead

I’ll be a Chingachgook

To your Leatherstocking

A blaze of fur and hide

Our shares consolidated

Our directorates interlocking

I’ll be along for the ride

I’ll be at Ticonderoga

I’ll be there for you at yoga

I’ll be your sideman, baby,

I’ll be by your side

This week in birds - #623

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

In spite of its name, the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week, the Yellow Cardinal, is not a cardinal at all. It is a member of the tanager family. Found in southern South America from Argentina to Uruguay, it is a resident of open woodlands and dry savannas. It is endangered and, unfortunately, its numbers are decreasing.

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The new administration in Washington has set about dismantling laws that protect the environment in order to facilitate oil and gas drilling. Can the Endangered Species Act survive?

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At the remote Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the Pacific, Wisdom, the (at least) 74-year-old Laysan Albatross, has a new chick. Isn't it adorable?

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Wisdom's history is an amazing story of survival in many ways.

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A black anglerfish, a fish of the ocean's depths, caused quite a stir when it appeared on the surface of the ocean near Tenerife recently. Obviously, something was amiss with the fish and it ultimately died.

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New Zealand has once again chosen its "Bug of the Year" and it is a member of the family of velvet worms.

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Along Mexico's Pacific Coast in the Baja California Sur a rarely seen oarfish, another fish that normally lives in the ocean's depths, has been making itself at home recently. (Is there something unusual going on in the deep ocean that is causing these fish to surface?)

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2024 was a year of record-breaking heat on Earth's surface. It may be a harbinger of things to come.

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That heat has not been evident in the United States recently as it has experienced extremely cold weather thanks to a polar vortex. The cold has even reached us here in southeast Texas.

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Here are some amazing pictures from The Guardian of the Week in Wildlife.

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Regardless of what goes on in Washington, Mount Denali will always be Mount Denali, just as the Gulf of Mexico will always be the Gulf of Mexico.

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In Argentina, a contraception plan for capybaras is being devised. It does not enjoy universal approval.

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Here are ways to make your backyard safe for birds this winter.

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There is a move afoot to remove endangered species protections for the Florida Scrub-jay. Conservation groups are fighting back.

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Humans evolved on an icy planet. What will the heating up of Earth mean for the species? 

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Winter is still here but the Monarch butterflies are beginning to make their way back to us.

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Here are suggestions for attracting Mourning Doves to your yard.

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What are the effects of light pollution on the creatures of the night?

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Gila monsters made possible a medicine to help diabetics; now we need find a way to help them survive.

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How can we attract native sparrows to our bird feeders?

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Spring is on its way but we may experience a false spring before the arrival of the real thing.

Poetry Sunday: In the Meantime by Tom Hirons

(Note to readers: Oops! I had meant to post this earlier and, in fact, imagined that I had. Silly me!)

I came across this poem last week and it was as if it had been written just for me. It perfectly expressed how I felt - a timely reminder that regardless of the nonsense coming out of certain quarters, the world continues in the meantime.

In the Meantime

by Tom Hirons

Meanwhile, flowers still bloom.

The moon rises, and the sun.

Babies smile and somewhere,

Against all the odds,

Two people are falling in love.

Strangers share cigarettes and jokes.

Light plays on the surface of water.

Grace occurs on unlikely streets

And we hold each other fast

Against entropy, the fires and the flood.

Life leans towards living

And, while death claims all things at the end, 

There were such precious times between, 

In which everything was radiant 

And we loved, again, this world.

This week in birds - #622

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

The traffic at the bird feeders has been heavy this week. Frequent visitors have been Red-winged Blackbirds, like this female. 

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The new administration's pro fossil fuel agenda is a threat to our national monuments.

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And right on cue, the administration has killed a major report that was due on the state of Nature in the country. Those who worked on the report are hoping to publish it anyway.

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Also thanks to the new administration, plastic straws will be returning to our lives, because, you know, that's what he ran on.

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The president has nominated an oil industry insider to oversee drilling on public lands, because, of course, there will be drilling on public lands. 

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Here are the species we lost in 2024.

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Pollution from factory farms can be seen from space.

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A new study has found that people do actually pay attention to and are willing to follow expert climate advice.

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Appallingly, a river near Buenos Aires turned red after a suspected industrial dye leak.

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Are we in for four years of the Orbánization of America? 

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Humans couldn't seem to get it done so the beavers took over!

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Scientists have found evidence of an exceptional ultra-high-energy neutrino, a messenger from the cosmos.

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This is the Red-crested Cardinal, the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week. In spite of its name, it is not closely related to our beloved Northern Cardinal. It is, in fact a member of the Tanager family, the second largest bird family in the world. It is a native of South America and can be found in Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, and northern Argentina.

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Sadly, most countries are missing the climate deadlines that were set at the last Conference of the Parties on climate.

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Scientists have detected that the core of Earth is changing.

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This is the weekend of the Great Backyard Bird Count. Are you participating? It's not too late!

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There's new evidence that microplastics could be a danger to our brains.

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It was literally an unidentified flying object. What was it?

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I agree with the AP; it'll always be the Gulf of Mexico for me.

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Most Birds-of-Paradise species absorb light through their bodies and emit it through their plumage. They literally glow. As a part of the mating ritual, the males send off these bioflourescence signals.

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The National Park Service will be able to exempt some positions from the hiring freeze imposed by the new administration.

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And here's a kerfuffle about methane-cutting cow feed. What an interesting world we live in.

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Helen Hays, an ornithologist famous in the bird world for her work on Great Gull Island, has died at the age of 94.

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Arsenic as one of the building blocks of life? Maybe.

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Magnetic field signals can cause turtles to "dance for joy."

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The threat of "forever chemicals" to human health is very real and the new administration is rolling back limits meant to protect us.

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Moreover, the threat of avian flu is spreading and data censorship by the administration will make combating it even harder. 

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Years ago, Shell was responsible for polluting Nigeria. Finally, the trial regarding their actions is set to begin. 

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Fulfilling current land restoration pledges would require only a small portion of global gross domestic product. And the will to do it.

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The eruption of Hawaii's Kilauea volcano has become a tourist attraction.

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There are alligators and quite a bit of other wildlife living in the sewers of Florida.

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Off the coast of Chile, a kayaker was scooped into the mouth of a humpback whale. Apparently the whale didn't like the taste and spit him right back out again. Shades of Jonah and the whale.

Poetry Sunday: Sonnets from the Portuguese - #43 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I've featured this poem here before and I probably will again. It is a personal favorite of mine and is the most perfect poetic expression of love that I know. Valentine's Day is coming up, the day on which we celebrate our love. I hope that you, dear reader, have much love to celebrate on that day.

Sonnets from the Portuguese - #43

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of being and ideal grace.

I love thee to the level of every day’s

Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

I love thee freely, as men strive for right;

I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.

I love thee with the passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.