This week in birds

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: 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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