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This week in birds - #646

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 A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : The  ʻAlalā, or Hawaiian Crow, is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week . Sadly, this bird has effectively been extirpated in the wild but an effort is being made to bring it back. That will be a decades-long process and its success is in no way guaranteed, but we can hope...    *~*~*~* So, the  idea of a border wall  between the United States and Mexico is on the table again and is just as stupid and destructive to the environment as ever. *~*~*~* In other terrible news for the environment, the Environmental Protection Agency is proposing that pollution limits be revoked . What will the nation's environment look like after four years of this? *~*~*~* The bane of my childhood summers were the little red bugs known as chiggers. They are still out there, burrowing into the skin of another generation  and making life miserable for their victims. *~*~*~* The world's supply of water is ...

Poetry Sunday: Country Summer by Leonie Adams

I grew up in the country and the summer that  Léonie Adams  describes in this poem is very familiar to me, especially the description of stars on a summer night. They seem so close that one could reach out and touch them... Country Summer by Léonie Adams Now the rich cherry, whose sleek wood, And top with silver petals traced Like a strict box its gems encased, Has spilt from out that cunning lid, All in an innocent green round, Those melting rubies which it hid; With moss ripe-strawberry-encrusted, So birds get half, and minds lapse merry To taste that deep-red, lark’s-bite berry, And blackcap bloom is yellow-dusted. The wren that thieved it in the eaves A trailer of the rose could catch To her poor droopy sloven thatch, And side by side with the wren’s brood— O lovely time of beggar’s luck— Opens the quaint and hairy bud; And full and golden is the yield Of cows that never have to house, But all night nibble under boughs, Or cool their sides in the moist field. Into the room...

This week in birds - #645

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  A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : A bird of the shoreline - both fresh and salt water - is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week , the Spotted Sandpiper . It can be seen teetering, bobbing, and darting along the water's edge throughout most of North America. It is also called the "Teeter-peep" which well describes its actions. It breeds all the way from the northern Arctic to the southern United States. Its non-breeding range includes the extreme southern U.S., including south Texas. *~*~*~* It should not come as a surprise that climate change is making forest fires more common around the world. *~*~*~* Brazil's Congress has  voted to weaken environmental protection rules  despite fierce opposition from environmentalists.  *~*~*~* Some animals seem to have an appreciation of music and are actually able to keep a beat. *~*~*~* Light pollution is a serious problem especially for birds on migration, and some cities, like ...

Poetry Sunday: Knoxville, Tennessee by Nikki Giovanni

Summers, growing up in the South, were the best of times. Nikki Giovanni described them well in this poem.  Knoxville, Tennessee by Nikki Giovanni I always like summer best you can eat fresh corn from daddy's garden and okra and greens and cabbage and lots of barbecue and buttermilk and homemade ice-cream at the church picnic and listen to gospel music outside at the church homecoming and you go to the mountains with your grandmother and go barefooted and be warm all the time not only when you go to bed and sleep