This week in birds - #688

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

The American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week for last week was the Koloa Maoli (Hawaiian Duck), an endemic nonmigratory Hawaiian species whose population is vulnerable but increasing.

The Bird of the Week for this week is The Black-necked Stilt, a long-legged shorebird that inhabits wetlands. Their population appears to be stable but they are vulnerable to the threat of habitat loss and pollution.

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Europe is enduring heat wave after heat wave this summer with temperatures expected to soar to 109 degrees Fahrenheit this week. Meanwhile the United States suffered through its hottest month on record in July according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 

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Rising temperatures make pesticides a greater danger to farmworkers whose work brings them in contact with them.

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In more climate news, this year's El Niño is huge and it is already having an effect on the weather and on crop failures.

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In the Chicago area, an extremely rare half male, half female Bobolink has been causing a stir among birders.  

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A global web of subsea cables is able to detect whales even when they are silent.

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The current administration is moving ahead with plans to end the roadless rule for national forests over the strong objections of environmentalists.

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Arborists are working to save a three-hundred-year-old live oak that lived through the Revolutionary War in South Carolina.

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In Minnesota, the Monarch butterflies have begun their migration south to their winter home in Mexico.

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When predators are around, deer tend to avoid roads, thus making being hit by a car less likely.

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This is a Himalayan salamander. They are an ancient species and the people of Darjeeling are working to ensure that they are also present in the future. 

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British Columbia is logging the last of its old-growth trees. Protestors are sleeping in the roads in a desperate attempt to stop it.

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Sowing wildflowers on land scorched by wildfires in California is an attempt to shore up the land and heal the mess that has been left behind.

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Why do narwhals' tusks grow the way they do? Scientists are studying that question in an attempt to find the answer. 

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Do monkeys keep pets? Evidence certainly suggests the possibility.

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A coral reef that was presumed dead has been found to be teeming with life.

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The world's first rewilded sharks are bing raised by shark nannies.

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Kazakhstan has released its first tiger into the wild in more than seven decades. More are on the way.

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California is phasing out the use of paraquat, an herbicide that has been linked to Parkinson's Disease. 

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is showing one of the oldest surviving copies of Homer's "The Odyssey."

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There are actually a few dinosaur "mummies" that exist and they are avidly studied by scientists.

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Some octopuses are extremely smart and, of course, scientists want to know why.

No TWIB this week

It's been a busy week and I haven't had a chance to gather topics for This Week in Birds. Next week should be a little less hectic and I hope to be able to participate once again. Happy Saturday! 

Jackie

                                                                                       Jackie:  2012 - 2026

With the aid of a livestream of her nest high in a Jeffrey pine overlooking Big Bear Lake in California, millions of viewers have watched Jackie, the Bald Eagle, and her mate, Shadow, since 2018. I was among those millions since 2019 when I discovered the online site.

We watched as Jackie laid her eggs and incubated them. We experienced disappointment and sadness when, often, the eggs didn't hatch or they were destroyed by the ever-present Common Ravens. And we experienced joy on the occasions when those eggs did hatch and Jackie and Shadow devoted themselves to feeding and caring for their chicks until they fledged.

That's what happened every year since their bond was formed and it is what happened this year. But then things went wrong.

In mid-July, Jackie was found weak and unable to fly on the north shore of Big Bear Lake. She had been attacked by two younger eagles but authorities do not think the attack is what caused her grounding. Had she been left there, she would undoubtedly have been killed and eaten by a coyote or mountain lion, but the decision was made and permission was obtained to capture her and try to save her. She was taken to Ojai Raptor Center where she was treated until her death.

Veterinarians who treated her found that she was emaciated and had likely been ill from some as yet undetermined disease for quite some time before she was rescued. She had severe anemia and was given a blood transfusion from another eagle. She initially showed some slight improvement but then her condition regressed and she died Monday morning at the raptor center. And around the world, all those millions of viewers, her fans, mourned her loss.

How can one even begin to explain what these two eagles have meant to us and how much we have learned about life in the wild through watching them over these past years? How can one explain the tears shed over the death of a wild animal who never knew we existed or knew how much we cared about her and how much we were hoping for her recovery? It was not to be.

But life around Big Bear Lake continues and it is now protected from development largely because the fame of Jackie and Shadow helped to raise the $10 million that was needed to save the area from a housing subdivision that had been planned. Life goes on for Shadow and for the two chicks from this year's nest that have now fledged and moved on to find and establish their own territories. 

Shadow remains and, when the new breeding season begins, he will likely find a new mate and perhaps they will build their nest and raise a family in view of the cameras. It is possible they could even use the now empty nest that Shadow continues to guard. And perhaps by then our hearts will have healed so that we can enjoy watching this new family. But I can guarantee that Jackie will not be forgotten by any of us and that we will continue to treasure her memory and be grateful for the years we had together.   

Poetry Sunday: In Summer Time by Paul Dunbar

Paul Dunbar's poem describes the kind of summer that I remember from my time of growing up on the farm. It was indeed a time which lulled the senses and made for drowsy indolence when all one really wanted to do was take a nap in the shade of an oak tree. But since it was a farm, there were animals and fields to be cared for, so no time for napping. Still one could enjoy the "birds' songs," the "bees' low monotone," and the "waters' drone" while one took care of those necessary chores. The music of summer.

In Summer Time

by Paul Dunbar

When summer time has come, and all

The world is in the magic thrall

Of perfumed airs that lull each sense
To fits of drowsy indolence;
When skies are deepest blue above,
And flow'rs aflush,—then most I love
To start, while early dews are damp,
And wend my way in woodland tramp
Where forests rustle, tree on tree,
And sing their silent songs to me;
Where pathways meet and pathways part,—
To walk with Nature heart by heart,
Till wearied out at last I lie
Where some sweet stream steals singing by
A mossy bank; where violets vie
In color with the summer sky,—
Or take my rod and line and hook,
And wander to some darkling brook,
Where all day long the willows dream,
And idly droop to kiss the stream,
And there to loll from morn till night—
Unheeding nibble, run, or bite—
Just for the joy of being there
And drinking in the summer air,
The summer sounds, and summer sights,
That set a restless mind to rights
When grief and pain and raging doubt
Of men and creeds have worn it out;
The birds' song and the water's drone,
The humming bee's low monotone,
The murmur of the passing breeze,
And all the sounds akin to these,
That make a man in summer time
Feel only fit for rest and rhyme.
Joy springs all radiant in my breast;
Though pauper poor, than king more blest,
The tide beats in my soul so strong
That happiness breaks forth in song,
And rings aloud the welkin blue
With all the songs I ever knew.
O time of rapture! time of song!
How swiftly glide thy days along
Adown the current of the years,
Above the rocks of grief and tears!
'Tis wealth enough of joy for me
In summer time to simply be.

Another trip around the sun

My family is celebrating my birthday today, so no "This week in birds." If I survive the celebration, TWIB will return next week. Happy Saturday! 

Poetry Sunday: Earthrise by Amanda Gorman

I've found myself thinking this week about how our planet is viewed from outer space and it turns out that former U.S. poet laureate Amanda Gorman has given some thought to that also. She published this poem on just that subject a few years ago. In it, she urges us "to keep rising up for an earth more than worth fighting for." Those are words we should take to heart and on which we must act for the future of life on Earth.

Earthrise

(Dedicated to Al Gore and The Climate Reality Project)

by Amanda Gorman

On Christmas Eve, 1968, astronaut Bill Anders
Snapped a photo of the earth

As Apollo 8 orbited the moon.

Those three guys
Were surprised
To see from their eyes
Our planet looked like an earthrise
A blue orb hovering over the moon’s gray horizon,
with deep oceans and silver skies.

It was our world’s first glance at itself
Our first chance to see a shared reality,
A declared stance and a commonality;

A glimpse into our planet’s mirror,
And as threats drew nearer,
Our own urgency became clearer,
As we realize that we hold nothing dearer
than this floating body we all call home.

We’ve known
That we’re caught in the throes
Of climactic changes some say
Will just go away,
While some simply pray
To survive another day;
For it is the obscure, the oppressed, the poor,
Who when the disaster
Is declared done,
Still suffer more than anyone.

Climate change is the single greatest challenge of our time,

Of this, you’re certainly aware.
It’s saddening, but I cannot spare you
From knowing an inconvenient fact, because
It’s getting the facts straight that gets us to act and not to wait.

So I tell you this not to scare you,
But to prepare you, to dare you
To dream a different reality,

Where despite disparities
We all care to protect this world,
This riddled blue marble, this little true marvel
To muster the verve and the nerve
To see how we can serve
Our planet. You don’t need to be a politician
To make it your mission to conserve, to protect,
To preserve that one and only home
That is ours,
To use your unique power
To give next generations the planet they deserve.

We are demonstrating, creating, advocating

We heed this inconvenient truth, because we need to be anything but lenient
With the future of our youth.

And while this is a training,
in sustaining the future of our planet,
There is no rehearsal. The time is
Now
Now
Now,
Because the reversal of harm,
And protection of a future so universal
Should be anything but controversial.

So, earth, pale blue dot
We will fail you not.

Just as we chose to go to the moon
We know it’s never too soon
To choose hope.
We choose to do more than cope
With climate change
We choose to end it—
We refuse to lose.
Together we do this and more
Not because it’s very easy or nice
But because it is necessary,
Because with every dawn we carry
the weight of the fate of this celestial body orbiting a star.
And as heavy as that weight sounded, it doesn’t hold us down,
But it keeps us grounded, steady, ready,
Because an environmental movement of this size
Is simply another form of an earthrise.

To see it, close your eyes.
Visualize that all of us leaders in this room
and outside of these walls or in the halls, all
of us changemakers are in a spacecraft,
Floating like a silver raft
in space, and we see the face of our planet anew.
We relish the view;
We witness its round green and brilliant blue,
Which inspires us to ask deeply, wholly:
What can we do?
Open your eyes.
Know that the future of
this wise planet
Lies right in sight:
Right in all of us. Trust
this earth uprising.
All of us bring light to exciting solutions never tried before
For it is our hope that implores us, at our uncompromising core,
To keep rising up for an earth more than worth fighting for.

This week in birds - #687

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

This is the the Peruvian Thick-knee, a bird of the hot, dry coastal plain of northwestern South America. It is an unusual desert-dwelling "shorebird" that is mostly nocturnal. It has not been studied extensively and so is not as well-known as many birds. Much is unknown about its basic biology and about the overall health of the species, although the known evidence suggests that it is declining. As with so many species, the main threat to its continued existence is habitat loss. The Peruvian Thick-knee is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week. 

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Scientists studying the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs sixty-six million years ago suggest that it turned the planet into an inferno where any creature who couldn't find cover would have been charbroiled.

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Ancient fossil footsteps that have been uncovered in Kenya suggest that one of our early ancestors may have been larger than previously believed.

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A new study suggests that linguistic diversity may have reached its peak three millennia ago and that humans of that era may have spoken thousands more languages that we have today.

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The dunes sagebrush lizard of the Permian Basin of southeastern New Mexico and west Texas was declared endangered by the Biden administration in 2024. The current administration has now stripped it of that protection.

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Wildfires in France have been so intense that they created a monster cloud which unleashed lightning that created more wildfires.

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Although the current administration canceled a project called the National Nature Assessment, the scientists who worked on it found a way to continue.

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Five rescued Kemp's ridley sea turtles were returned to the sea around Cape Cod this week.

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How did some reptiles lose their limbs and become snakes? An 80-million-year-old fossil is providing some answers to that question.

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The Okefenokee Swamp that spans parts of Georgia and Florida has been added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. 

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Here's a list of the best national parks in the United States where you can witness wildlife migrations. 

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If you are interested in attracting hummingbirds to your garden, here are some tips that could help you do it. One way is to put up feeders but ants can be a pest in those; here's how to keep them off. Hummers are tiny birds, of course, and they build tiny nests.

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The adult content site OnlyFans now has a G-rated account called "Only Marms." It features marmots and is an effort by scientists to get funds for their research on the squirrel-like rodents.

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Chimps and bonobos use hugs, kisses, and friendly pats to show affection and diffuse tension in much the same way as humans.

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If you visit a national park where there are elk, watch out; they are more likely than a bear to attack you.

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Researchers are tagging and tracking spinner sharks along the East Coast to try to get a clearer idea of their migration routes.

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Remember acid rain? Well, it's back.

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There is an effort to reintroduce storks to Derbyshire in England.