The Nature of Things

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 al...

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 .  *~*~*~* Remembering Jane Goodall ... *~*~*~* 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 . *~*~*~* 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. *~*~*~* Our president has this week frozen billions i...

The Picture of Dorian Gray  

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 f...

  A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : This is a Black Phoebe . It is a resident near watery landscape features all along the west coast of North America and down into Central America and along the western coast of South America. Like other phoebes, it often nests near humans and even in or on human structures. Its population is increasing all along its range. It is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week . *~*~*~* Jane Goodall became my hero when I first read about her in the pages of the National Geographic back in the 1960s. I've followed her career ever since and I am saddened to know she is no longer physically among us, but what a legacy she has left! *~*~*~* And at the opposite end of the spectrum, what a legacy this man will leave as he wages war on clean energy and seeks to revive "big coal." *~*~*~* Scientists now believe our species could be older than previously thought, based on the reconstruction of a million-year-o...