This week in birds

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.

*~*~*~*

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 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.

*~*~*~*

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.

*~*~*~*

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.

*~*~*~*

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

*~*~*~*

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

*~*~*~*

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

*~*~*~*

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.

*~*~*~*

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...

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

Search This Blog