This week in birds - #618

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

This fantastically colored creature is the very aptly named Shining Sunbeam, also called the Copper-winged Hummingbird, a large, conspicuous hummingbird whose habitat includes both slopes of the Andes, from Colombia south through Ecuador and Peru. Its population is believed to be stable. 

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In his last days in office, the current president is doing what he can to protect climate funding from the depredations of the incoming president.

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The deadly Los Angeles wildfires affect wildlife as well as people. Here are some ways to help them.

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"Guerrilla rewilding" is now a thing and is apparently responsible for the recent release of four lynx in the Scottish Highlands. All have now been safely recaptured.

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                                   This little cutie is the Danish-Swedish farm dog.

We are not big football fans in my family (sacrilege I know) but we always look forward to Super Bowl Sunday. No, not for the game but for the American Kennel Club dog show that is broadcast that day. This year, we may see a new breed of dog that has just been recognized by the AKC. It's the Danish-Swedish farm dog.

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Melting ice in Wyoming has led to the discovery of a 5,900-year-old forest of whitebark pine trees.

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And speaking of cuties, here is the little Northern Saw-whet Owl, a master of hiding.

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On the other end of the size scale from the Saw-whet Owl is the giant Steller's Sea Eagle. It's not a native North American bird species but one has been spotted at various places across the continent in recent years and has lately been sighted at an eastern Canada park.

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Tattoos have become very popular in American culture in recent years but they are definitely nothing new; the Chancay people who lived on the Peruvian coast around 900 to 1500 C.E. also adorned themselves with sometimes quite intricate tattoos.

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Climate change is happening over the long term but is affecting daily weather as well and has recently contributed to deadly floods around the Mediterranean Sea.

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The Environmental Protection Agency has warned that "forever chemicals" are present in sewage sludge that is used as fertilizer and they could pose risks to human health. 

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This story reminded me of one of my all-time favorite television series,  Detectorists: A hoard of eleventh century silver coins has been discovered in England. 

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Here are some quite amazing images from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest.

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A 4,100-year-old burial chamber of a physician who treated ancient Egyptian kings has been discovered and excavated by archaeologists.

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Unsurprisingly, the president-elect's choice for Energy Department Secretary rejects the idea that climate change is contributing to more frequent and severe wildfires.

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And in other news of the incoming administration, the pick for secretary of the Health and Human Services Department claims that we are being poisoned by seed oils.

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Migrating bats use storm fronts to help them on their way.

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The news of the world can be unrelentingly depressing but Dana Milbank assures us that spring will come again.

Poetry Sunday: The Tuft of Flowers by Robert Frost

Since I first became acquainted with Robert Frost's poetry in high school, I've often taken comfort in it over the years. Whenever the world seems particularly fractious, as it has recently, I turn again to many of his poems that I love. There are two of Frost's in particular that are meaningful for me - "Birches" and "The Tuft of Flowers." Today, "The Tuft of Flowers" seems especially appropriate - a reminder that we are all in this together whether we work together or apart.

The Tuft of Flowers

by Robert Frost

I went to turn the grass once after one

Who mowed it in the dew before the sun.

 

The dew was gone that made his blade so keen

Before I came to view the levelled scene.

 

I looked for him behind an isle of trees;

I listened for his whetstone on the breeze.

 

But he had gone his way, the grass all mown,

And I must be, as he had been,—alone,

 

‘As all must be,’ I said within my heart,

‘Whether they work together or apart.’

 

But as I said it, swift there passed me by

On noiseless wing a ‘wildered butterfly,

 

Seeking with memories grown dim o’er night

Some resting flower of yesterday’s delight.

 

And once I marked his flight go round and round,

As where some flower lay withering on the ground.

 

And then he flew as far as eye could see,

And then on tremulous wing came back to me.

 

I thought of questions that have no reply,

And would have turned to toss the grass to dry;

 

But he turned first, and led my eye to look

At a tall tuft of flowers beside a brook,

 

A leaping tongue of bloom the scythe had spared

Beside a reedy brook the scythe had bared.

 

I left my place to know them by their name,

Finding them butterfly weed when I came.

 

The mower in the dew had loved them thus,

By leaving them to flourish, not for us,

 

Nor yet to draw one thought of ours to him.

But from sheer morning gladness at the brim.

 

The butterfly and I had lit upon,

Nevertheless, a message from the dawn,

 

That made me hear the wakening birds around,

And hear his long scythe whispering to the ground,

 

And feel a spirit kindred to my own;

So that henceforth I worked no more alone;

 

But glad with him, I worked as with his aid,

And weary, sought at noon with him the shade;

 

And dreaming, as it were, held brotherly speech

With one whose thought I had not hoped to reach.

 

‘Men work together,’ I told him from the heart,

‘Whether they work together or apart.’

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January 16 -

I just noted that this was my number 4,000 post on this blog  - a milestone of sorts. Thank you for reading!

   

This week in birds - #617

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

This little jewel is the White-bellied Woodstar, a resident of forest edges, open pastures, and fields throughout the central and eastern Andes. The three-inch-long bird is fairly common within its range and is mostly non-migratory. It is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week. 

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The next four years do not look hopeful for our confronting climate change.

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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has confirmed that 2024 was the hottest year ever recorded. Now that we have reached a dangerous warming threshold, will be be able to reverse the trend?

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The Caribbean area has experienced record-breaking heat over the last couple of years and that does not appear likely to change.

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Moreover, the climate crisis is disrupting the planet's water cycle which is affecting entire ecosystems and billions of people. 

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And yet Nature has shown repeatedly that it has an amazing capacity to adapt.

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Was the brouhaha over the snail darter all just a case of mistaken identity?

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A "rogue rewilding" has returned the lynx to the Scottish Highlands.

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Our current president has just banned drilling in much of the country's coastal waters, an action that, unfortunately, will likely be reversed by the incoming president.

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Venomous snake bites take a heavy toll in rural areas of Africa where medical help may not be readily available.

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Does a palm oil plantation count as a forest? The president of Indonesia claims it should.

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Cuban tree frogs are among the many invasives that have been swept to our shores by hurricanes. (Invasive maybe, but you have to admit he's awfully cute!)

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Australia, the land of so many marsupial animals, even has a marsupial mole!

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Is Florida's Tortoise Conservancy truly a conservation organization or is it just another scam?

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There were some wildlife winners in 2024; among them were salmon, wolves, whales, and bears.

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Finally, from The Guardian, here are pictures of the week in wildlife.  

Poetry Sunday: The Sun by Mary Oliver

As I sat outside in the warmth of a winter sun I thought there must be a poem that expresses this feeling that it gives me, and if there is such a poem, it was probably written by Mary Oliver. So, I went looking for it and sure enough, here it is. 

The Sun

by Mary Oliver

Have you ever seen
anything

in your life
more wonderful

than the way the sun,
every evening,
relaxed and easy,
floats toward the horizon

and into the clouds or the hills,
or the rumpled sea,
and is gone--
and how it slides again

out of the blackness,
every morning,
on the other side of the world,
like a red flower

streaming upward on its heavenly oils,
say, on a morning in early summer,
at its perfect imperial distance--
and have you ever felt for anything
such wild love--
do you think there is anywhere, in any
language,
a word billowing enough
for the pleasure

that fills you,
as the sun
reaches out,
as it warms you

as you stand there,
empty-handed--
or have you too
turned from this world--

or have you too
gone crazy
for power,
for things?

This week in birds - #616

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

This magnificent creature is the Violet-tailed Sylph, a member of the hummingbird clan that is a resident along the western slope of the Andes in Colombia and Ecuador. It favors misty, mossy cloud forest habitats at around 3,200 feet. Its population is fairly stable at the moment but it faces threats from habitat loss and degradation. It is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week.

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It is reported that President Biden plans to establish two new national monuments in California in coming days, honoring the wishes of several Native American tribes there.

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Residents of Papua New Guinea are being displaced by rising sea waters and thousands are moving to the mountaintops to escape.

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Yellowstone National Park exists atop a magma field that is part of one of the world's largest active volcanic systems; however, scientists say a full-scale eruption is unlikely.

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Changing tides have led to an increase in the numbers of beached marine life on Cape Cod.

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2024 capped a ten-year period of unprecedented deadly high temperatures. They represent the hottest decade on record.

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The next four years promise to be challenging for the science and conservation community. How can the damage be minimized?

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We tend to think of urban landscapes as being barren but in fact they often teem with wildlife.

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Margaret Renkl urges us to "green up" our news feed and offers a list of sources to help us do just that.

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The man whom the president-elect plans to nominate as the Secretary of Health and Human Services apparently believes that the chemtrails from airplanes are part of a nefarious government plot. (Sigh. It's going to be a long four years.)

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It isn't only human marriages that sometimes end in divorce; it happens with animals, too.

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Could the crucial Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation system of ocean currents collapse? Clam shells may be able to predict.

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Florida's manatees were scarcely present in the area before the seas began to get warmer in the late 1700s.

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Over the next four years, the Arbor Day Foundation has plans to plant millions of trees to replace those that have been destroyed by hurricanes.

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The biggest dinosaur trackway ever found in Britain has been unearthed in an Oxfordshire quarry.

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Dramatic social and technological changes may be necessary to prevent societal collapse.

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Finally, as we say goodbye to President Jimmy Carter, it is worth remembering that he established the Department of Energy and the Department of Education and he signed major environmental protection legislation that doubled the size of the national park system and tripled the size of the nation's wilderness areas. I believe history will look upon his presidency kindly and perhaps with regret that he didn't get the chance to do more.

My reading year

It turns out that 2024 was a pretty slow reading year for me. I had set my goal at 40 books which was less than half the number of books I had read in past years, but I didn't even manage to hit that target. I ended the year having only read thirty-four books.

Nevertheless, I was generally quite happy with the ones that I did read. I rate my books from one to five stars, but it is very rare indeed for me to rate a book at five stars and I almost never have a one-star read. I didn't have any five-stars or one-stars in 2024; however, I did have fourteen that I gave a four-star rating and eighteen that were three-star reads for me. Two were a bit disappointing and I only gave them two stars. 

For 2025, I'm setting my goal at 40 books once again which I do realize is quite paltry compared to most of my blogging friends. But this year I'm going to try a little harder to actually reach it. Wish me luck!