This week in birds

This week in birds - #621

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

This striking bird is the Phainopepla and it is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week. It is a bird of the desert riparian scrub and high elevation oak woodlands and canyons. I have seen it on trips to West Texas and New Mexico and I can attest that it is just as handsome in the feather as it is in this picture.

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The arrival of La Niña conditions in the Pacific Ocean could have been expected to lower the planet's average temperature but, in fact, last month was the hottest January on record.

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The heat is even affecting the Greenland ice sheet, causing it to crack more rapidly than ever.

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The new administration's freeze on foreign aid threatens to hamper Brazil's efforts to fight deforestation.

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The recent flurry of executive orders has disrupted the work of scientists studying environmental health. The environmental justice movement is gathering its resources and making plans to fight back against the attacks by the administration.

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The West Coast fires are in some instances fed by the actions of humans. Here are some steps that could be taken to reduce the risk.

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Meanwhile, the water the administration ordered released from two dams in California's Central Valley was an entirely political action which had no effect on the fires. And that water will now not be available to help fight any fires that come later in the year.

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RSPB Geltsdale in the north Pennines of England is now the country's largest bird sanctuary.

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Spotted hyenas are returning to Egypt after vanishing from the area 5,000 years ago.

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Neonicotinoid pesticides continue to be a threat to birds.

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The annual Great Backyard Bird Count will take place next weekend, February 14-17. Will you be a part of it?

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As the climate warms, urban conditions become more friendly for rats and their numbers are soaring.

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The Great Lakes Marsh Monitoring Program is providing important information necessary for the conservation of those wetlands.

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A California man who had had to evacuate because of the wildfires returned home to find a 500 pound black bear had taken refuge under his house. The bear was safely lured out, captured, and relocated to the Angeles National Forest.

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In New Zealand, a mountain called Taranaki has been given legal personhood status as a way of protecting it.

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USAID is an agency that supports efforts to reduce wildlife trafficking, deforestation, and other threats to the world's environment so, of course, the new administration wants to shut it down.

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The Archipelago of Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) off the coast of Canada has participated in Christmas Bird Counts since 1982.

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What is killing the great white sharks? Canadian and American scientists are trying to solve the mystery.

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North Atlantic right whale numbers are declining and the situation is being made worse by their entanglement in fishing gear. A federal court has just restored protections for the species.

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What is the source of the mysterious lights that appear around Summerville, South Carolina, a town northwest of Charleston? A seismologist thinks they may be related to low-level seismic activity.

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Remember Moo Deng, the pygmy hippo? Has her popularity helped to improve the situation for wild pygmy hippos?

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Margaret Renkl urges us to rethink our relationship to the natural world and learn to coexist peacefully with it.

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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