This week in birds

This week in birds - #647

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

The American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week is a small Hawaiian honeycreeper called the Maui ʻAlauahio. The bird can only be found in montane forests above 4,500 feet in altitude on the slopes of the Haleakalā volcano in east Maui. It has been extirpated from the western part of Maui as its required habitat has been destroyed by the overgrazing of animals like feral cattle, sheep, pigs, and goats. Feral pigs also dig wallows that serve as breeding areas for introduced, disease-carrying mosquitoes. Important forest habitat has also been lost to human settlements. As a result, this bird's status is "endangered" and it is decreasing in numbers.

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This may be the only recorded instance of a fish causing a fire!

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The Monarch butterfly die-off in California in 2024 was likely caused by exposure to pesticide, according to research.

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Many of the National Weather Service jobs that were cut in the big "Department of Government Efficiency" debacle will be rehired.

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A familiar sight to anyone visiting the Texas Coast during nesting season is flocks of Black Skimmers.

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Scientists have identified a six-foot-long dinosaur that roamed the landscape of modern-day Mongolia some 70 million years ago.

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Borophagines were a type of bone-crushing dog that once roamed across North America but disappeared about two million yers ago.

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Female gorillas joining a new group tend to seek out individuals they've previously met.

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The International Monarch Blitz continues.

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If you have a problem with squirrels stealing your birdseed, you might want to consider "hot pepper birdseed."

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Here are some tips for attracting hummingbirds. And once you have attracted them, here's how to keep ants off their feeders.

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Scientists are releasing non-biting male mosquitoes in Hawaii in hopes they will breed with females of the invasive species that transmit avian malaria and produce sterile eggs.

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Centuries-old Hawaiian petroglyphs depicting human-like figures have emerged from the sand of the beaches for the first time since 2016.

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Uncertainty is very much a part of our lives so it is nice to have some things that are certain - like the yearly return of the Barn Swallows.

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Here's a report on the birds of the grasslands of Canada.

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When we anthropomorphize animals, we actually do them no favor.

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Potatoes and tomatoes are related. The potato likely evolved from a tomato ancestor nine million years ago.

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A third manta ray species has been identified in the Atlantic.

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A gigantic stick insect weighing almost as much as a golf ball has been found living in the high altitude trees of Australia.

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The Millerbird, a Hawaiian songbird, came close to extinction but, with help from its friends, it is slowly making a comeback.

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The golden apple snail is able to regrow an amputated eye within about a month.

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Is there a justifiable case to be made for attempting to regenerate extinct species such as the Moa or the dire wolf?

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A bird of the Great Plains, the Lark Bunting is not really a bunting - it is actually a sparrow.

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An invasive beetle is devastating Hawaii's coconut palms.

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The current iteration of the Environmental Protection Agency is making plans to rescind the legal foundation for many of the nation's climate regulations.

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Scientists suspect that a massive sea star die-off is related to global warming.

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Construction is underway on the world's largest wildlife overpass in Colorado. It is meant to give wildlife a safe way to cross a busy freeway.

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Using digital imaging, hidden tattoos have been found on a 2,000-year-old "ice mummy."

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Australian skinks, like this one, have evolved a resistance to the paralyzing effects of snake venom.

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The future of one of the best Piping Plover habitats remaining in Ontario is at risk.

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Global maps reveal where mycorrhizal fungi thrive and where they are unprotected.

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"Bird cities" is a joint program of Audubon Texas and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department that helps people to safeguard birds and their habitats.

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Here are tips to help you identify that bird you just saw.

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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