The Nature of Things

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment :  It's butterfly season in my backyard. The cohort is led by Cloudless Sulphurs like this one feasting on one of my Hamelia patens shrubs. These shrubs with their tubular blossoms are great favorites with butterflies and with the hummingbirds that are now passing through. In past years, there would be many Monarch butterflies among the cohort. Not this year. So far this October I've not seen a single Monarch. *~*~*~* South America is experiencing a historic drought and the Amazon is drying up. *~*~*~* Some of the world's poorest nations are very rich in Nature. They need help protecting it. As the COP 16 conference meets in Colombia, delegates will push to ensure that protection . That need is urgent because the world's nations are lagging behind on their expressed goals. *~*~*~* New discoveries lead paleontologists to speculate that the origin of dinosaurs dates back much further than had been believed

 Having previously read and enjoyed two Richard Osman mysteries - The Thursday Murder Club and The Last Devil to Die - I couldn't resist when I saw he had a new one out. So, once again, I abandoned my planned reading list and jumped right on it. In We Solve Murders , Osman introduces us to some new characters: Amy Wheeler is a private security guard who works at protecting VIPs. She is married to Adam, a man who she almost never sees. At the time that we meet them, they are on opposite side sides of the world. Strangely enough, it is a very happy marriage. (Or maybe that isn't so strange.) Her closest relationship seems to be with her father-in-law, Steve Wheeler. Steve is a widower who is still grieving for his beloved wife and still talks to her every day, telling her about the events of that day. He is a retired cop and presently a private investigator. He is known at his local pub as a quiz and puzzle expert. He is a lover of cats, especially his own, named Trouble, and h

Let's have another Mary Oliver poem, shall we? One that celebrates the season and the plant much loved by bees. And me.  Goldenrod by Mary Oliver On roadsides, in fall fields, in rumpy bunches, saffron and orange and pale gold, in little towers, soft as mash, sneeze-bringers and seed-bearers, full of bees sand yellow beads and perfect flowerlets and orange butterflies. I don’t suppose much notice comes of it, except for honey, and how it heartens the heart with its blank blaze. I don’t suppose anything loves it, except, perhaps, the rocky voids filled by its dumb dazzle. For myself, I was just passing by, when the wind flared and the blossoms rustled, and the glittering pandemonium leaned on me. I was just minding my own business when I found myself on their straw hillsides, citron and butter-colored, and was happy, and why not? Are not the difficult labors of our lives full of dark hours? And what has consciousness come to anyway, so far, that is better than these light-filled bod

  A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : This is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week , the Upland Sandpiper , a bird of open grasslands, hayfields, and prairies. It is one species that seems to be doing well; its numbers are increasing. *~*~*~* Is the carbon sink that keeps Nature in balance failing ? *~*~*~* A botulism outbreak in California has caused mass bird deaths . More than 94,000 birds have died. *~*~*~* These thirty-four species are not "new" but they've only recently been discovered by humans . *~*~*~* A reforesting project is revitalizing Rio . And in Ireland, one landowner is rewilding his land in hopes of changing an area that had become an ecological desert. *~*~*~* Here's how scientists use a wind tunnel to study bird migration .  *~*~*~* A new marine sanctuary has been created off the coast of California. *~*~*~* And halfway around the world, here are some of the creatures that call the Atlantic Ocean home.

Leaves are falling. Great heaps of them lie on the ground waiting to be removed to the compost bins. They are a rich harvest. Small animals will be glad for the heat of their decaying this winter and afterward garden beds will receive them. Nothing in Nature is wasted. Gathering Leaves by Robert Frost Spades take up leaves No better than spoons, And bags full of leaves Are light as balloons.   I make a great noise Of rustling all day Like rabbit and deer Running away.   But the mountains I raise Elude my embrace, Flowing over my arms And into my face.   I may load and unload Again and again Till I fill the whole shed, And what have I then?   Next to nothing for weight, And since they grew duller From contact with earth, Next to nothing for color.   Next to nothing for use, But a crop is a crop, And who’s to say where The harvest shall stop?  

  A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : Ruby-throated Hummingbirds continue passing through in migration, but I've still only seen immatures and females like this one - no adult males yet.  *~*~*~* Do you live in a "fun state" ? (I note that Texas is #7 on the list.) *~*~*~* Wildlife populations are collapsing in many areas.  *~*~*~* That collapse may be exacerbated by the fact that Earth's vital signs have reached record extremes. *~*~*~* Meanwhile, in the Sahara Desert, a rare deluge of rain has fallen.  *~*~*~* Back in this country, the Supreme Court has refused to block new Biden administration efforts to address climate change and air pollution. *~*~*~* A UN biodiversity summit in Colombia will assess the progress made on countries' promises to help save the developing world's ecosystems . *~*~*~* The Northern Lights have put on quite a show this week. *~*~*~* The highest peak in the Great Smoky Mountains had been named aft