Poetry Sunday: June's Coming by John Burroughs

John Burroughs was an American poet, essayist, and Nature writer of the 19th century. He was a friend and champion of Walt Whitman and Ralph Waldo Emerson. His writing reveals a deep understanding and appreciation of Nature. "I go to Nature," he wrote, "to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order." It's a sentiment with which many of us would agree. 

June's Coming

by John Burroughs

Now have come the shining days
   When field and wood are robed anew,
And o'er the world a silver haze

   Mingles the emerald with the blue.

Summer now doth clothe the land
In garments free from spot or stain—
The lustrous leaves, the hills untanned,
The vivid meads, the glaucous grain.

The day looks new, a coin unworn,
Freshly stamped in heavenly mint;
The sky keeps on its look of morn;
Of age and death there is no hint.

How soft the landscape near and far!
A shining veil the trees infold;
The day remembers moon and star;
A silver lining hath its gold.

Again I see the clover bloom,
And wade in grasses lush and sweet;
Again has vanished all my gloom
With daisies smiling at my feet.

Again from out the garden hives
The exodus of frenzied bees;
The humming cyclone onward drives,
Or finds repose amid the trees.

At dawn the river seems a shade—
A liquid shadow deep as space;
But when the sun the mist has laid,
A diamond shower smites its face.

The season's tide now nears its height,
And gives to earth an aspect new;
Now every shoal is hid from sight,
With current fresh as morning dew.

This week in birds - #637

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

The (to me) most beautiful member of the egret family is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week. It's the well-named Snowy Egret. The Snowy is found throughout much of the United States in migration and during breeding and it is a permanent resident throughout most of South America. It is smaller than the Great Egret and its most prominent and recognizable feature are its "golden slippers," the yellow feet at the end of black legs. We almost lost the Snowy along with the Passenger Pigeon and the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, but, just in time, it gained protection and is now increasing in numbers.  

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The Migratory Bird Treaty Act is the cornerstone of birds' protection in the United States and has been so for more than a century, so, of course, the current administration in Washington wants to gut it. The American Bird Conservancy is calling on people to contact elected representatives and urge them to do everything in their power to protect the Act and the birds.

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Monarch butterflies continue their flight north. Many have now reached parts of Canada.

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The Santa Cruz River offers something like an oasis in the middle of the Sonoran Desert in southern Arizona. Likewise, the San Antonio River, composed mostly of effluent, is an oasis in the middle of an urban area.

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Like so much else that the administration wants to yank funds from, archaeology is facing an uncertain future. 

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An excavation of King Arthur's Hall in Cornwall's Bodmin Moor has revealed the site to be 4,000 years older than archaeologists has originally believed.

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We are likely in for years of killer heat as a result of global warming.

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The 19th and early 20th centuries were a perilous time for many bird species because of the popularity of feathers in women's fashions. Some species were actually hunted to extinction because of it.

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The world's second largest rat species, a 33-inch-long woolly mountain rat, has been caught on camera for the first time in the mountains of New Guinea.

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Like the Monarchs, the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, too, have reached the northernmost extent of their range.

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A previously unknown "flapjack" octopus has been discovered off the coast of Australia. 

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A wildlife rescuer has a devoted fan in a Greater Roadrunner that she rescued. He returns to visit and brings her gifts every day.

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New fossil discoveries of small animals that lived during the Triassic Period are changing our knowledge about the biodiversity of that period.

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The two men who cut down England's centuries-old Sycamore Gap tree have now been convicted of the crime. And why did they do it? For "a bit of a laugh."

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It appears that Clownfish are able to shrink their body size in response to ocean heat waves.

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This Cooper's Hawk is one smart bird!

Poetry Sunday: Late Spring Easing to Summer by Deanna Samuels

This poem seems to me to perfectly describe this time of year as we move from one season into the next. See if you agree.

Late Spring Easing to Summer

by Deanna Samuels

Early Spring has eased into late Spring,

foliage is at its richest deep greens,

trees thick, full branched,
boughs heavy with leaves and budding fruits.

Crop fields sprouting, growing,
each day getting stronger, taller.
Road verge grasses high, overgrown, lush,
a would-be splendid meal for grazing.

Birds chirping and tweeting loudly,
hidden in the dense hedge rows
while frogs croak intermittently,
concealed amidst damp roots and long grass.

Hidden streams gurgle sluggishly,
slowly moving downstream,
attracting menacing mosquitoes
ready to eye a warm-blooded victim.

Birds are nesting, patiently rearing young
while pond and lake edges
become platforms of discovery
for young waterfowl to swim.

Small mammals suckle their new born,
teaching the brood to hunt safely in the wild
while ants, bees and other creepy crawlies
build nests around their queen.

Dandelions have passed their day of golden wonder,
leaving delicate, white puffy balls in their stead,
quickly to be lifted and scattered by the wind,
ensuring the seeds make for more flower growth.

Summer is no longer too far behind,
soon the Spring scene will be transformed,
transformed to the fullest of nature's growth,
richness of colorful blooms and bounteous harvests.

This week in birds - #636

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

This pretty little bird is Virginia's Warbler and it is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week. It is found in patches throughout the western United States in mixed coniferous/deciduous habitats. It feeds low in trees and shrubs and close to the ground. It is closely related to the more widespread Nashville Warbler and Lucy's Warbler, a species that is found farther south in the Sonoran Desert.

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Acute global hunger surged for the sixth consecutive year in 2024. The number of people experiencing catastrophic levels of hunger more than doubled to 1.9 million.

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The Blyde rondawels flat gecko has been confirmed to still be in existence more than thirty years after it was last seen. It was found atop an isolated South African mountain.

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It seems that humpback whales have shockingly bad vision which may explain why they are so vulnerable to collisions with boats and entanglements in fishing nets.

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Science, who needs it? That at least seems to be the attitude of the current administration in Washington as they make plans to wipe out a large part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Geological Survey. Is the current Secretary of Commerce actually intent on destroying NOAA? If even Ted Cruz is worried you know something is amiss.

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Coyotes are amazingly adaptable critters. Just ask the residents of San Francisco where they have become a ubiquitous presence.

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The president seems determined to complete his border wall between this country and Mexico, wildlife corridors be damned!

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Palm oil plantations are still devastating the landscape and the wildlife of Borneo.

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The Amazon Basin continues to lose acres of forest each year and that has the effect of also reducing rainfall in the area.

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The weather phenomenon known as an "omega block" means poor flying weather and that affects spring migration.

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Birding in Arizona can be quite the adventure and can mean finding many interesting things besides birds.

Poetry Sunday: It Is Not Always May by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I remember that Frank Sinatra once sang about the September of our years and, goodness knows, September comes to us soon enough for, as Longfellow reminds us, "It is not always May." But May is one of the most pleasant months where I live and so, while it it remains, let's enjoy it!

It Is Not Always May

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 

No hay pajaros en los nidos de antano.

                Spanish Proverb 

The sun is bright,--the air is clear,
  The darting swallows soar and sing.
And from the stately elms I hear
  The bluebird prophesying Spring. 
So blue yon winding river flows,
  It seems an outlet from the sky,
Where waiting till the west-wind blows,
  The freighted clouds at anchor lie. 
All things are new;--the buds, the leaves,
  That gild the elm-tree's nodding crest,
And even the nest beneath the eaves;--
   There are no birds in last year's nest! 
All things rejoice in youth and love,
   The fulness of their first delight!
And learn from the soft heavens above
   The melting tenderness of night. 
Maiden, that read'st this simple rhyme,
   Enjoy thy youth, it will not stay;
Enjoy the fragrance of thy prime,
   For oh, it is not always May! 
Enjoy the Spring of Love and Youth,
   To some good angel leave the rest;
For Time will teach thee soon the truth,
  There are no birds in last year's nest! 

This week in birds - #635

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

The colorful Tropical Parula is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week. This beautiful bird can be found breeding as far north as the southernmost tip of Texas and is a resident through parts of Mexico and Central America and into South America. It is decreasing in numbers across its range.

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Monarch butterflies are on the move and have reached as far north as Michigan, New York, and Ontario.

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Our closest cousins, the chimpanzees, have been observed and documented using medicinal plants to treat wounds and other injuries.

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The current iteration of the EPA is rolling back protections against "forever chemicals" in drinking water. (I don't think they are taking that middle initial very seriously.)

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The fight against global warming does not need to conflict with the effort to end global poverty. 

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A new report outlines how corporations have fought against accountability for their part in global warming.

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"Forest management" is not necessarily a good thing; in fact, it is often just the opposite.

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Our current president hates wind energy, but its proponents are trying to find ways to change his mind.

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Florida's mangrove forests have been hammered by Nature and by human intervention, but there is an effort underway to restore them.

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Research published in the journal Nature this week argues that the feathered dinosaur, the Archaeopteryx, was probably capable of flight, at least for short distances, not unlike its descendant, the chicken.

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Is bringing extinct species like the dire wolf or woolly mice back through selective breeding a good idea? Or is it an unnecessary distraction from saving the species that still exist?

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I must confess it warms my heart to know that Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are still out there after more than forty-seven years, still carrying out the mission assigned to them.

Poetry Sunday: Another Poem for Mothers by Erin Belieu

Mothers and our relationships with them can be complicated and it can be hard to put all of that into words, but Erin Belieu, I think, does a pretty good job of it. 

Another Poem for Mothers 

by Erin Belieu

Mother, I'm trying

to write

a poem to you—

which is how most
poems to mothers must
begin—or, What I've wanted
to say, Mother...but we
as children of mothers,
even when mothers ourselves,

cannot bear our poems
to them. Poems to
mothers make us feel

little again. How to describe
that world that mothers spin
and consume and trap

and love us in, that spreads
for years and men and miles?
Those particular hands that could

smooth anything: butter on bread,
cool sheets or weather. It's
the wonder of them, good or bad,

those mother-hands that pet
and shape and slap,
that sew you together
the pieces of a better house
or life in which you'll try
to live. Mother,

I've done no better
than the others, but for now,
here is your clever failure.

This week in birds - #634

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

This is the wonderful little Pine Warbler, the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week. We here in Southeast Texas are at the outer limits of the Pine Warbler's range but they do exist here and my sense is that their numbers in the area may be increasing, perhaps as a result of the changing climate. My neighbors have huge pine trees in their yards of just the sort that these birds favor and as a result we get to enjoy their melodic trill when we are outside.

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Climate change is a reality and is likely to continue to worsen. How do we prepare?

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So our current government, in its wisdom, has removed the protections from marine protected areas. What could possibly go wrong?

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A new study confirms that North American bird populations are collapsing in places where they once thrived.

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Utah's Great Salt Lake is no longer "great." It's drying up.

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In Oregon, beavers are being restored to their former ecosystems and are helping to restore those ecosystems.

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Two major scientific societies have pledged to try to fill the void left by the government's dismissal of the 400 scientists who were working on a report on how climate change is affecting the country.

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A volcanic eruption in the eastern Pacific was witnessed by scientists who were diving in a submersible.

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Red wine bettas are a critically endangered fish from the small island of Bangka, Indonesia. They are disappearing as their habitat shrinks.

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She's got rhythm! She's a California sea lion who knows how to keep a beat.

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"Orphan wells" are gas and oil wells that have no active owner and are no longer producing but have not been plugged. There are a lot of them and they are a threat to our aquifers.

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The Yangtze finless porpoise is in a 1,400 year decline and poets have been writing about it for a millennium.

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Africa's Superb Starlings are distinctive in many ways and one of those ways is their propensity for forming friendships.

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Axolotls are another critically endangered species but there is hope for them as those that are captive-bred and then released into the wetlands in Mexico City appear to be thriving.

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Margaret Renkl writes of spring in Tennessee.

It's an invasion!

Stolen from Daily Kos: 

Poetry Sunday: Ode to Aging Bodies by Jan Mandell

I try to read at least one poem each day, generally picking at random, and occasionally, that randomness leads me to something that is absolutely perfect. Like this poem written by a poet I'd never heard of but who might have had me in mind when she wrote this. See if it resonates with you, too.

Ode to Aging Bodies

by Jan Mandell

Aging bodies
wake to blue veins

that pop up
and travel like river tributaries
over paper thin skin
pocked with freckles, tags and blotches
that look like unidentified sections
of abstract art

Aging bodies
Rise up to the chatter and 
creaking sounds of thin, porous bone
that feel like cheap metal pipes
refitting poorly into their stubborn mates

Waking up the aging body is familiar
like an attempt to turn over
the frozen engine of a used car
left out overnight
in a below zero day
in the dead of Minnesota winter  

The ache and noise of an aging body
is like a constant companion,
a highly extroverted friend 
who simply won’t shut up, 
yet is there thru it all.   

This is an ode to aging bodies
who cough and spatter and wheeze like sounds of old cars,
who drive thru the day anyway
making poetry from pock marks, skin tags, speckled hands
and remain unbothered 
by the constant twitch and crunch of bone grinding into thinning cartilage

Rather they hear this noise as music,
a jazz riff or a smooth soul remix, 
a moan of an old-time blues band. 
Lulling the aging body back to sleep. 

If blessed and favored
aging bodies wake up the next day 
to the twitch, crunch and chatter and of thin, porous bones 
To the pulse of blue veins 
The feel of wrinkled, sagging skin 
The sound of an old time blues band 

Calling to every aging body
to rise up
And do it all again

This week in birds - #633

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

The American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week for this week is the Worm-eating Warbler, a bird that breeds throughout much of the eastern United States from southern New England all the way down to eastern Texas. It is a rather plain-looking bird of the forest interior and is not closely related to other warblers. Its name is a misnomer as it doesn't really feast on worms; rather its favorite food is caterpillars which, of course, are sometimes colloquially referred to as worms.

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Here is a list of the top five fossil fuel companies that produce harmful emissions. They are mostly the ones you would probably expect.

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Who needs to know about how climate change is affecting this country? The current administration in charge thinks the answer is "Nobody." All the scientists working on a report detailing that have been fired.

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The current iteration of the Environmental Protection Agency is rolling back public health protections right and left but says it will take action to combat toxic forever chemicals. Color me skeptical.

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It appears that the Yellowstone supervolcano has a safety cap.

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Two previously unknown species of crocodile have been identified in the Caribbean.

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It's not really Nature-related but I find it infuriating so I include it here: The state of Texas wants to punish bookstores that sell what it defines as "obscene" books, because of course they do! Reminder: The book burners/banners are NEVER heroes.

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It turns out that the songs of humpback whales like this one share patterns with human language. 

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In Peru, archaeologists have discovered the graves of twenty-four members of the Chuquibamba culture that preceded the Incas and dated from 1000 to 1450 C.E. The remains were wrapped in textiles and buried with offerings that indicated they were being honored.

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Terminator sparrows? Well, Lili Taylor thinks so!

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The beautiful Bali Myna once faced extinction, but it has been saved by a unique approach, at least for now.

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"Crypto noise pollution" is now a thing and the people of a small town in Texas are fighting against it.

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A public art initiative featuring herds of life-sized animal puppets is helping to raise awareness about the climate crisis.

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Bite marks on an ancient skeleton found in England is taken as physical evidence that Roman gladiators fought lions in the arena.

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I was pleased to read that Chattanooga, home of my alma mater, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, has been designated as North America's first "National Park City."

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Here's some good news about Monarch butterflies from Arizona's lower deserts. Turns out there are quite a lot of them there.

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Swans are considered invasive in New York City but they have their champions there.

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Amazingly, Valerie, the miniature dachshund, survived alone in the Australian wilderness for 529 days and now her story has had a happy ending. She has been rescued.