This week in birds

This week in birds - #639

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

Isn't he cute? He is a Black-crested Titmouse and he is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week. His range includes central and western Texas, Oklahoma, and northeastern Mexico. He is a cousin to the Tufted Titmouse, a resident of my yard, one that I frequently encounter, sometimes in company with Carolina Chickadees, whenever I am outside. The Black-crested often hybridizes with the Tufted when their ranges overlap.

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Earth's temperature is soaring and that is a threat to our food supply as food crops must quickly adapt to those higher temperatures in order to photosynthesize.

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Hurricane season started two weeks ago but so far the Gulf and the South Atlantic are quiet.

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Monarch butterflies in the western states are beginning to reach their summer breeding grounds and so hope for their continued survival is kindled.

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Ocean acidification passed a critical tipping point some years ago and is now a threat to global ecosystems and coastal economies.

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Ancestral lands that were taken from them over 120 years ago have now been returned to California's Yurok Tribe.

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We have a small goldfish pond in our backyard and I love to sit beside it and watch the critters that visit. Among them are dragonflies, including Autumn Meadowhawks like this one.

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California's Anna's Hummingbirds are expanding their range northward and are changing the shape of their beaks in order to better take advantage of backyard feeders.

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Atlantic sturgeons are still endangered, but all along the eastern coast from Maine to Florida, the population is rebounding and the prehistoric species is staging a comeback.

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Wild pigs are becoming a problem in the Bay Area of California and their numbers appear to be growing.

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Here are some fun facts about orioles.

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The Pacific island nation of Tonga is set to recognize that whales have legal rights.

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When I was about twelve or thirteen years old, I read The Last Days of Pompeii by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. It totally captured my imagination and I reread it several times over that summer. All these years later, Mt. Etna is again putting on a spectacular display.

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How do you round up fourteen million honeybees? These beekeepers know and they got the job done after the bees escaped from an overturned truck in Washington state.

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Axolotls fascinate me. In addition to being perfectly adorable, they have the ability to regrow missing limbs and scientists are studying them to try to understand the process.

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The giant long-necked sauropod dinosaurs were long believed to be vegetarian and now there is proof of that.

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My introduction to Tasmanian devils was in the cartoons that were featured along with the Saturday matinees I used to frequent at the Princess theater when I was a teenager. Now, Australia has a breeding program to try to help the devils come back from the depletion of their population and this week they confirmed at least ten joeys growing in their mother's pouches.

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It can be hard to tell House Finches from Purple Finches but here are a few clues that might help.

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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