This week in birds - #691

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

The American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week is a species that was only discovered in 2017 in the mountains of southwestern Ecuador. It is a member of the hummingbird family, the beautiful Blue-throated Hillstar. Because of the destruction of its habitat and loss of its favored nectaring plants, it is considered to be critically endangered and thought to be decreasing. There may only be around one hundred individuals left in the wild.

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When Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth came out twenty years ago, he listed buying energy-efficient appliances including lightbulbs as one way to combat climate change. Some thought that was a very paltry suggestion for fighting such a big problem but it turns out that in that as in so many other things, Al Gore was right.

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A federal judge (appointed by Trump) has ruled that Americans have no right to safe drinking water.

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August 2026 tied for the month with the hottest global temperatures on record.

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Trump has ordered a "review" of Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves and Mexican wolves. It is likely that that is a first step in removing those protections.

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Some hunter-gatherers of 25,000 years ago were apparently users of betel nuts which are known for their mind-altering properties.

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This country's symbol, the Bald Eagle, was saved from extinction with the help of Canada.

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Toxic dust and PTSD may be accelerating brain aging among 9/11 first responders.

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The state of Illinois now classifies plastic pellets as a pollutant.

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The extinct cat that once roamed North America was long thought to be a cheetah, but it turns out that was wrong. It was more closely related to the puma.

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Peruvian archaeologists have discovered ancient tombs from the Chimu kingdom that have not been touched by looters.  

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A study has revealed that almost half of the world's farmers are poisoned by pesticides every year.

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New York City's Mayor Mamdani has released documents that reveal that first responders who rushed to the World Trade Center twenty-five years ago were likely exposed to dangerous toxins.  

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Hawaii has often dodged the path of hurricanes but not this summer.

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How did vertebrates first develop eyes?

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It seems that the smallest planet in our solar system, Mercury, is getting even smaller. 

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A gene that helped bowhead whales adapt to frigid Arctic waters may also be a key to their extraordinary longevity.

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As important as it is to save the whales, it may be just as important to save the microbes.

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Birds are migrating, mostly by night. Help them by turning off outside lights.

Remembering...

On September 11, 2001, at 7:00 a.m., I went to my job as a supervisor of twelve social caseworkers and six secretaries at the Texas Department of Human Resources. About fifty minutes later, one of my caseworkers came running down the hall to my office, in tears, telling me we had been attacked. At first I couldn't make sense of what she was saying. She had had her radio on in her office and had heard the awful news from New York. 

When I finally could understand what she was telling me, I turned on my own radio and Bob Edwards on the NPR station that I routinely listened to delivered the news, haltingly, in a voice that told me he could hardly believe what he was saying. Two planes had been commandeered by members of al-Qaeda, a global Islamist terrorist network, and had been flown into the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center in New York. We were indeed under attack. 

Soon the news came that the attackers had also struck Washington where the Pentagon was hit. The bad news just kept coming as we learned that another plane headed for Washington had crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. In that case, we later learned the passengers on the plane had realized what was happening and had fought back. That plane, it is believed, had been headed toward the U.S. Capitol or the White House but the bravery of ordinary citizens prevented it from completing its mission. 

Were there other attack planes headed toward other cities? My thoughts, of course, turned to Houston. Would we be attacked? Did I need to go and pick up my children to have them with me? I called my husband, the newspaper editor, who I knew would still be asleep after working the night before on the day's paper. He would now have perhaps the biggest story of his career to edit.

On December 8, 1941, a day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt had gone before Congress to request a formal declaration of war against Japan. In that speech, he had described December 7 as "a day that will live in infamy." The statements after September 11, 2001 were perhaps not as eloquent but no less heartfelt. 

As long as this nation endures September 11, 2001 will be another day that lives in infamy in its history. Twenty-five years later we remember those who died that day. Let us strive to honor them by doing our civic duty to try to make this country a nation that lives up to the ideals expressed in its founding documents and is truly worthy of their sacrifice.

Poetry Sunday: Sonnet 73 by William Shakespeare

Yes, I know I've featured this poem before. It is one of my favorite Shakespeare sonnets, so here it is again. After all, it is that time of year when we begin to behold some yellow leaves, at least in some parts of the world. Here near the Gulf Coast they are still mostly green and will remain so. But I do remember autumn and those yellow leaves, one of my favorite times of year.

  
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 - #690

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

The American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week is the Gray-bellied Comet, a bird found on the Pacific slope of the Andes in north-central Peru. This little hummingbird is endangered and its population is decreasing. There may be less than a thousand of them left in the wild. Its main threat is habitat loss as lands are cleared for agriculture and livestock grazing. Climate change is also a factor. As the world gets hotter and more drought-prone, it impacts the bird's habitat and the availability of its foods.

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The main environmental news of the week was, of course, the floods in Nepal that have wreaked such havoc on that country.

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But in Indonesia, the crippling drought of many months continues.

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We lost a giant this week. Wendell Berry, the Kentucky poet, novelist, and environmentalist has died at the age of 92.

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Another giant who left us recently is Dolly Parton. Known of course for her music, wildlife conservationists also know her for her efforts to help save the (then endangered) Bald Eagle through her theme park's collaboration with American Eagle Foundation beginning in 1991. 

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The Trump administration continues its quest to give away part of our public lands, in this case Yosemite National Park.

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Catastrophic wildfires in France are doing long-term damage to many wildlife populations.

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                                                            Kākāpō with chick.

Here's some good news from New Zealand: The population of the endangered Kākāpō, the world's only nocturnal and flightless parrot, now tops 300 for the first time in 75 years.

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A population of an extremely rare plant species, Indianthus virgatus, has been found in Sri Lanka for the first time in 170 years.

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I don't typically think of reptiles making sounds but they do, in fact, have quite the vocabulary.

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The incredible whales known as narwhals are called the "unicorns of the sea."

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The White-headed Duck of Spain is the star of an amazing success story in conservation.

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A study of corals reveals that El Niño events have increased in strength in recent years, perhaps due human activity contributing to the heating up of the planet.

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Blue crabs have taken over the Adriatic Sea and Italian researchers have released thousands of baby octopuses to combat them.

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The ghost elephants of Angola are nocturnal, stealthy and deeply wary of humans which is likely very wise of them.

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The invasive spotted lanternfly is covering trees in western Massachusetts and could spell doom for some of the vegetation there.  

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Jackie, the beloved Big Bear Valley Bald Eagle who died recently, had her own memorial day on September 4 as proclaimed by the California State Senate.

Poetry Sunday: There Will Come Soft Rains (War Time) by Sara Teasdale

Sara Teasdale was an American poet of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She died in 1933. She was admired and acclaimed for her lyrical poetry, receiving the Pulitzer Prize for it in 1918. This is perhaps her most famous poem, a piece that describes a beautiful natural world that is indifferent to human conflict.  A world that might be better off if, in fact, spring should arrive some day to find us gone.

There Will Come Soft Rains (War Time)

by Sara Teasdale

There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

And frogs in the pools singing at night,

And wild plum trees in tremulous white,

Robins will wear their feathery fire
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree
If mankind perished utterly;

And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,
Would scarcely know that we were gone.

This week in birds - #689

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 'A'o (Newell's Shearwater), a bird of aquatic habitats and forests in Hawaii. It is nonmigratory. This bird's population is decreasing and it is now considered critically endangered. It faces threats from many sources - cats, rats, mongooses, as well as degradation of its environment by invasive plants and animals such as pigs and goats. The 'A'o is a nighttime flyer and it is sometimes disoriented by artificial lights and can collide with powerlines and other structures. Conservation organizations are working to get a predator-proof fence built around Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge as one means of protecting the remaining population. 

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This year's El Nino is still growing and that is not a good thing.

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So the current administration is considering giving up part of Yosemite National Park to a private developer. One suspects this is only the beginning.

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When fruit is scarce, the bearded capuchins of northeastern Brazil hunt animals. Researchers believe this may provide a clue to the origins of humans' own meat-eating habits. 

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Snails are able to tweak the texture of their slime in order to suit their need of the moment.

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Forests did not fare well in an ancient global warming event and that does not seem to bode well regarding today's climate change.

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Climate change raises the risk of more disasters like the recent Nepal floods.

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Saving old trees is good for us as well as the trees.

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Anti-data-center sentiment is growing across the country. It turns out most people don't want them in their communities. 

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The administration is shortening the period for review for the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. That is not a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention. 

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"Save the microbes!" is a new rallying cry from microbiologists.

Poetry Sunday: Ode to Kool-Aid by Marcus Jackson

And now for something completely different...

I remember so well the summers when my kids were growing up and their beverage of choice was always Kool-Aid. I wonder how many gallons of that stuff I mixed over those years. Well, Marcus Jackson understands and he thinks that beverage deserves to be celebrated.

Ode to Kool-Aid

by Marcus Jackson

You turn the kitchen

tap’s metallic stream

into tropical drink,
extra sugar whirlpooling
to the pitcher-bottom
like gypsum sand.
Purplesaurus Rex, Roarin’
Rock-A-Dile Red, Ice Blue
Island Twist, Sharkleberry Fin;
on our tongues, each version
keeps a section, like tiles
on the elemental table.
In ninth grade, Sandra
employed a jug of Black Cherry
to dye her straightened
bangs burgundy.
When toddlers swallow you,
their top lips mustache in color
as if they’ve kissed paint.
The trendy folks can savor
all that imported mango nectar
and health-market juice.
We need factory-crafted packets,
unpronounceable ingredients,
a logo cute enough to hug,
a drink unnaturally sweet
so that, on the porch,
as summer sun recedes,
Granddad takes out his teeth
to make more mouth to admit you.