This week in birds - #659

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

It is perhaps appropriate that on this Halloween the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week is a blood-drinking bird, the Vampire Ground-Finch. It is believed that the bird's behavior of drinking blood evolved from its habit of pecking at parasites as it cleaned them from the plumage of larger seabirds. The bird's range is two tiny islands (Darwin and Wolf) in the northwestern corner of the Galapagos Islands. Charles Darwin only ever visited the main Galapagos Islands and so he never encountered or described the Vampire Ground-Finch.

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Earth is growing dimmer, reflecting less light back into space, and the Northern Hemisphere's light is decreasing even faster than the Southern Hemisphere. 

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Horseshoe crab blood has long been used in making safe medicines but now alternatives that could spare those creatures are being tested.

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For the first time in its long history, it seems that mosquitoes have invaded Iceland.

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The current administration in Washington has approved increased drilling for oil and gas in Alaska's national wildlife refuge.

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A marine heatwave in the summer of 2023 has left critical Florida corals functionally extinct with too small a population to reproduce.

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This is an example of the web of an orb-weaver spider. Apparently these spiders "decorate" their webs in order to better locate their prey.

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In other news of spiders, it seems they don't like loud noises any more than we do. New research has found that they build their webs differently in loud conditions.

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Florida panthers have been facing extinction for a while, but now they have been saved - at least temporarily - by genes from Texas pumas.

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Climate change made this week's Hurricane Melissa much more powerful.

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Bats that glow? At least six species of North American bats glow green under UV light, but the purpose of the glow is unclear.

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Did the famous Moai of Easter Island "walk" to their current location on the island? New research shows how that might have happened.

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How did Indigenous Americans transport a tree weighing in excess of five-tons more than a hundred miles 900 years ago to the pre-Columbian city of Cahokia?

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To hide from predators, some animals try to blend in with their surroundings while others display bright colors as a warning. Which strategy works better?

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Bowhead whales have a lifespan of more than 200 years and it is possible that that holds a key to longer lives for humans.

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Without more effective protections, isolated indigenous groups of humans could vanish within a decade, according to a new report. 

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Not only a repository for the dead, cemeteries can also offer a place of protection for the wild.

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A new study indicates that dinosaurs were thriving on North America before that famous asteroid hit Earth some sixty-six million years ago.

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It appears that Australian rainforests are now emitting more carbon than they absorb and that is an ominous finding.

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Scientists have discovered a polar rhino that roamed the Canadian Arctic some 23 million years ago.

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Want to attract owls to your property? Here are seven strategies that could help.

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Is there a Loch Ness monster lookalike lurking in the waters of Lake Tahoe? Legends of "Tahoe Tessie" hint at the possibility.

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Monarch butterflies are migrating and the first roosts have been reported in Mexico. 

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And finally, may I wish you a happy Samhain! As the wheel turns and darkness deepens, may you honor what has been and gently let it go. May the quiet Earth remind you to rest and root. In the stillness, may your inner light burn steady and true. Bless Samhain. 

Poetry Sunday: October by Paul Laurence Dunbar

October truly is one of my favorite months of the year and I think it must have been one of Paul Laurence Dunbar's as well because he wrote this lovely poem in honor of the month. Dunbar was an American poet and novelist of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He was the son of parents who had been enslaved before the Civil War. He was a remarkable poet who overcame many obstacles to become the first African-American poet to gain national recognition. I hope you enjoy his description of this "Whole-hearted, happy, careless, free" month.

October

by Paul Laurence Dunbar

October is the treasurer of the year,

And all the months pay bounty to her store;

The fields and orchards still their tribute bear,

And fill her brimming coffers more and more.
But she, with youthful lavishness,
Spends all her wealth in gaudy dress,
And decks herself in garments bold
Of scarlet, purple, red, and gold.
She heedeth not how swift the hours fly,
But smiles and sings her happy life along;
She only sees above a shining sky;
She only hears the breezes' voice in song.
Her garments trail the woodlands through,
And gather pearls of early dew
That sparkle, till the roguish Sun
Creeps up and steals them every one.
But what cares she that jewels should be lost,
When all of Nature's bounteous wealth is hers?
Though princely fortunes may have been their cost,
Not one regret her calm demeanor stirs.
Whole-hearted, happy, careless, free,
She lives her life out joyously,
Nor cares when Frost stalks o'er her way
And turns her auburn locks to gray.

This week in birds - #658

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

This is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week. It is the Groove-billed Ani, a bird of the most southern tip of Texas, into Central America and on into the northern and western parts of South America. The bird is given the common name of "Tick eater" which is a bit misleading, but like Cattle Egrets, it does enjoy dining on the insects that are stirred up by the feet of cattle.

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Although the federal government is shut down, some employees are still working - those who issue permits for oil, gas, and mining operations, for example. Priorities...

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And no more climate research in the Arctic region, it would seem. Will we even notice when everything finally melts?

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It seems the phrase "survival of the fittest" may be somewhat misunderstood.

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A close friend of Vice President J.D. Vance has just been appointed to take over the NIH Environmental Health Institute.

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Was the evolution of our species shaped in part by our exposure to lead? New research seems to indicate that.

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Colorado is building the "world's largest" wildlife overpass, giving big animals like elk a safe way to pass.

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Here's a link to fifteen images from this year's Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards.

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A 3,500-year-old Egyptian military fortress has been discovered in the Sinai Desert.

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A zoo filled with misfit animals is almost out of money for its operation.

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A maternal lynx named Lena was rescued from a fur farm and now she helps to raise young orphaned animals including kittens, bear cubs, and puppies.

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The North Atlantic right whale is one of the planet's rarest whales, but the good news is that its population is growing.

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Fire Island, New York's only federal wilderness area has seen an explosion of the population of feral cats which has dire consequences for the islands native birds.

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Off Santa Cruz, California, those feisty otters are at it again - stealing surfboards.

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The first discovery of hand and foot bones of an ancient cousin of our human ancestor, Paranthropus boisei, suggests they were capable of making and using simple stone tools.

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The "Coral Triangle" is a biodiverse patch of ocean around the Philippines and Papua New Guinea that seems to be resilient to climate change.

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In Sequoia Park, California, a young black bear broke into the zoo in order to visit the zoo's bears.

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A 1-in-30 million calico lobster was recently caught off the coast of Massachusetts, after which she found a home in the Northeastern University's Marine Science Center.

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The green sea-turtle is making a comeback and the once endangered critters have now been reclassified as "a species of least concern."

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A new study has found that lizards with missing limbs still seem to thrive amazingly well.

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A California student took chickens from a slaughterhouse. Was it a rescue or a crime? (As one who grew up on a farm and whose early playmates were often chickens, I'm definitely on the side of the rescuer and the chickens.)

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Finally, here are the finalists from this year's Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards. Enjoy! 

Poetry Sunday: The Zen of Housework by Al Zolynas

This one caught my eye with its title. I'd never thought much of housework as being a "Zen" activity. My interest was piqued and so I read.  The line about the glass being full of the "grey wine of domesticity" made me smile. And so I decided to share it with you. Let me know what you think. 

The Zen of Housework

by Al Zolynas

I look over my own shoulder

down my arms

to where they disappear under water

into hands inside pink rubber gloves

moiling among dinner dishes.

My hands lift a wine glass,

holding it by the stem and under the bowl.

It breaks the surface

like a chalice

rising from a medieval lake.

Full of the grey wine

of domesticity, the glass floats

to the level of my eyes.

Behind it, through the window

above the sink, the sun, among

a ceremony of sparrows and bare branches,

is setting in Western America.

I can see thousands of droplets

of steam—each a tiny spectrum—rising

from my goblet of grey wine.

They sway, changing directions

constantly—like a school of playful fish,

or like the sheer curtain

on the window to another world.

Ah, grey sacrament of the mundane!

This week in birds - #657

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

This little beauty is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week. It is the Velvety Black-Tyrant and I think that we can agree that it is very well-named. It is a bird of the dry grasslands and forests of eastern Brazil, the only place, in fact, that it is found. The bird has not been well-studied, but scientists believe that its population is stable and that it benefits from having a very large range. Still, it is vulnerable to the dangers that face all birds: habitat loss, a changing climate, and pesticide use.

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Our current administration's Interior Department has canceled an enormous solar power project in the Nevada desert that would have been one of the world's largest. 

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It has, in fact, been a crushing year all-round for American science as the administration has sharply cut funding for scientific research and cut thousands of jobs. 

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The president seems determined to bring back the coal industry as he shuts down solar projects.

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In other bad news, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have jumped by a record amount, according to U.N. studies.

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California now has a "State Snake" and it's a beauty. It is the Giant Garter Snake.

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A tipping point in climate change has been reached with widespread coral dieback.

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Jeffrey Meldrum, a scientist who had studied "Bigfoot" (Sasquatch) has died at age 67.

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Sandhill Cranes and many other species are on the move in their winter migration.

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Future seas may look somewhat different from those today, because humans are altering them - like everything else on Earth, it seems.

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Zombie wildfires are causing extensive damage in the western states and testing the ability of the firefighters who are trying to control them.

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Republicans are attempting to weaken one of the nation's oldest environmental protection acts, the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972.

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Wildfire plus rain can be a dangerous combination.

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Wolves have a well-founded fear of humans.

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Among all the bad news in the latest report from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, there are actually some bright spots.

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Monarch butterflies have begun to arrive at their California and Texas winter sites.

Seems about right...

 

Poetry Sunday: Sonnet 73 by William Shakespeare

How about a little Shakespeare to brighten your Sunday? This is actually one of my favorites of his sonnets. I have featured it here before but it was way back in 2018, practically a lifetime ago! 

He's writing here about just this time of year but also about this time of life - the autumn of our years. He speaks of the "boughs which shake against the cold...where late the sweet birds sang." There are no boughs shaking against the cold here where daytime temperatures still reach around 90 degrees F. But I am in my autumn and winter is coming.

Sonnet 73: That time of year thou mayst in me behold

by William Shakespeare

That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see'st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire,
Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by.
This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

This week in birds - #656

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

These are Lava Gulls, a bird of the coastlines of the islands in the Galápagos archipelago. The species is endemic to that island chain and it occurs nowhere else. Unlike other gulls and terns, it is a solitary nester and it maintains a large territory which it defends aggressively against intruders. It is an adept flyer but tends to stick close to shore. The Lava Gull is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week. 

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Remembering Jane Goodall...

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The current administration "leading" this country is certainly no friend of climate science but climate scientists are doing their best to keep the issue alive and in the public eye.

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India's first Red List of Endangered Species was to be revealed this week at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

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Our president has this week frozen billions in funding for renewable energy projects in states led by Democrats. What damage will he be able to do over the next three years? Nevertheless, on a more hopeful note, at the grassroots, people are still working to combat the effects of climate change.

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One of the things the president did was to approve that 211-mile road through the Alaskan wilderness that the Biden administration had rejected after an environmental review.

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Zimbabwe's vultures face threats of many kinds, but they are vital weapons in the fight against the spread of deadly diseases and it is essential that they be protected.

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The Toronto Subway Deer, Torontoceros hypogaeus, has at last been identified using its DNA fifty years after the fossil was discovered by construction workers.

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According to a new global assessment, more than half of the world's species of birds are in decline.

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Thirteen baby giant tortoises are thriving in the Seychelles after the first successful artificial incubation.

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This is the British swallowtail butterfly. Its survival as a species is threatened by habitat loss, climate change and genetic erosion due to its limited geographical range in East Anglia, but scientists hope to use cryopreservation to help save it. 

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It's been fifty years since the good ship Edmund Fitzgerald sank with all of its crew during a storm on Lake Superior but the legend lives on from the Chippewa on down...   

The week that was, as seen by cartoonists

The Picture of Dorian Gray

 

Poetry Sunday: Caged Bird by Maya Angelou

This one has been featured here before - actually more than once, but it is a favorite of mine and, after all, a great poem bears reading and rereading. So, here it is again, the tale of the caged bird that sings "of things unknown but longed for still." It's a tale that could apply to many, I think. I hope you like it as much as I do.  

Caged Bird

by Maya Angelou

A free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wing
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.

But a bird that stalks

down his narrow cage

can seldom see through

his bars of rage

his wings are clipped and   

his feet are tied

so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings   

with a fearful trill   

of things unknown   

but longed for still   

and his tune is heard   

on the distant hill   

for the caged bird   

sings of freedom.

The free bird thinks of another breeze

and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees

and the fat worms waiting on a dawn bright lawn

and he names the sky his own.

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams   

his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream   

his wings are clipped and his feet are tied   

so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings   

with a fearful trill   

of things unknown   

but longed for still   

and his tune is heard   

on the distant hill   

for the caged bird   

sings of freedom.