This week in birds

This week in birds - #661

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

This is actually last week's Bird of the Week and possibly my favorite winter visitor. (Well, okay, I have many favorites!) It is the lovely little White-throated Sparrow. It is still fairly common around our neighborhood in winter, although some sources mark it as being in decline.

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The well-named Golden-winged Warbler is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week for this week. Unlike the White-throated Sparrow, its population is not in good shape. It has lost nearly sixty percent of its population since 1966, mainly due to habitat loss. The ABC is working with several partners to try to restore appropriate habitat.

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The weedkiller Roundup is still out there, still doing damage to the environment and the 2000 study that declared it safe has now been retracted.

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The link between humans and the natural world still exists. The frogs tell us so.

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The COP30 meeting in Belém, Brazil has been plagued by extreme heat which might be expected at a meeting about climate change.

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In Washington (state) the Spotted Towhees and other birds are giving their own "Yelp Reviews" of forest restoration work.

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Scientists can now track individual Monarch butterflies using tiny sensors that can be attached to them. It is revealing new information about their journey.

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The Arctic is the hottest it has been in 125 years and that is not a good thing.

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The current administration in Washington is proposing changes to the Endangered Species Act that could represent new threats to the already endangered Piping Plover.

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Fifteen coal plants that were scheduled to be closed will apparently live on, thanks to the current administration.

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The current administration is also proposing to limit the EPA's authority to limit pollution is rivers, wetlands and other bodies of water across the country.

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We knew wolves were clever but do they really use tools?

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In a monthlong global operation led by Interpol, nearly 30,000 trafficked animals were rescued.

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Ancient eggshells of a crocodile that inhabited the inland waterways of Australia some 55 million years ago have been discovered by paleontologists.

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African Gray Parrots have become victims of TikTok's obsession with them.

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Worker ants being tricked into killing their own queen? It's a plot straight out of "Game of Thrones" but apparently it is true.

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Are polar bears adapting to a warmer climate? Changes in their DNA are suggestive.

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Iowa's farms produce an incredible 110 billion pounds of manure in a year. Where does it all go?

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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