This week in birds - #620

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

This imposing pair is Jackie and Shadow, Bald Eagles who are nesting in the Big Bear Valley of California and who have a devoted following (including me) on Facebook. They are presently incubating three eggs. They've not had the greatest of success in past years. Fingers crossed that this year turns out more happily for them.

*~*~*~*

The senate has confirmed as the new director of the Environmental Protection Agency former congressman Lee Zeldin, a man with no creditable environmental experience.

*~*~*~*

And on that note, welcome to the Year of the Snake. We can at least hope that it is a propitious one.

*~*~*~*

How do birds cope with the cold weather of winter?

*~*~*~*

The new administration in Washington has thrown spending on addressing climate change into chaos. It is likely that chaos will continue for the next four years.

*~*~*~*

A study has found that genetic diversity of plant and animal species is declining globally.

*~*~*~*

The new president's attempt to get federal workers to resign seems to be having the opposite effect.

*~*~*~*

Meanwhile, the Doomsday Clock ticks ever closer to midnight.

*~*~*~*

The latest report on the status of Monarch butterflies does not hold much good news.

*~*~*~*

It should not surprise us to learn that our cousins, the chimpanzees, develop hand gestures as a way to communicate with each other.

*~*~*~*

Sadly, tiger poaching continues to be a problem in Malaysia.

*~*~*~*

An ocean heatwave likely is responsible for killing thousands of fish off the western Australia coast.

*~*~*~*

The opposite problem, cold water, is causing suffering among green sea turtles off Florida's Atlantic coast. Over 1,000 have been rescued.

*~*~*~*

In Madagascar, floods ravaged a sanctuary for critically endangered tortoises.

*~*~*~*

It'll always be the Gulf of Mexico for me.

*~*~*~*

Have you heard about the tuberculosis outbreak in Kansas? It's the largest on record in U.S. history.

*~*~*~*

Hawaii's Kilauea volcano is spewing lava again.

*~*~*~*

The northeastern coast of the country has been overrun by invasive crabs from Europe and Asia. Residents are trying to eat their way out of the problem.

*~*~*~*

Seventy-six million years ago, a young pterosaur apparently fell prey to a crocodile.

*~*~*~*

This beautiful creature is the Florida Scrub-jay and it is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week. It lives in the scrubby sandy oak woodlands and ancient dunes in coastal and central areas of the state.

*~*~*~*

And this is another Florida resident, the rainbow snake, which has just been seen in the wild for the first time in fifty years.

*~*~*~*

A baby shark has been born in a Louisiana aquarium tank that contains only female sharks and marine experts are flummoxed for an explanation. 

*~*~*~*

Saguaros are beset by a number of problems including climate change, drought, and fires, and all are made worse by human activities.

*~*~*~*

Danish scientists are excited about the discovery of some 66-million-year-old fossilized vomit!

*~*~*~*

Will this planned dam on the Congo River ever be built?

*~*~*~*




This is the Mount Lyell shrew, an elusive resident of the eastern Sierra Mountains that has only recently been photographed for the first time.



*~*~*~*

Sandeels are a treasured delicacy of Puffins and now a courtroom battle looms between the U.K. and the E.U. over the tiny fish.

*~*~*~*

Toxic PFAS from a chemical plant are polluting the Ohio River in West Virginia where the plant is located.

*~*~*~*

Astronomers are keeping an eye on an asteroid that has a slight possibility of hitting Earth in 2032.

*~*~*~*

A pangolin species that is potentially separate from species previously known has been identified in the Indo-Burma region. 

*~*~*~*

The last of the rhesus monkeys that escaped from a South Carolina research facility has been recaptured after having been lured by peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

*~*~*~*

I think we know that the current resident of the White House will use whatever tools he can find to circumvent the Endangered Species Act. 

*~*~*~*

The National Zoo's panda cam is back on line and airing footage of the zoo's newest panda pair.

*~*~*~*

Resistance is necessary, writes Anne Lamott, and we must practice it in whatever ways are available to us.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Poetry Sunday: Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver

How about we share another Mary Oliver poem? After all, you can never have too many of those. In this one, the poet seems to acknowledge that it is often hard to simply live in and enjoy the moment, perhaps because we are afraid it can't last. She urges us to give in to that moment and fully experience the joy. Although "much can never be redeemed, still, life has some possibility left." Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is no...
Read more

The Investigator by John Sandford: A review

Image
  I have read a few of John Sandford's books in the Prey series featuring Lucas Davenport. This book is a literal offspring of that series. It's the first in a series featuring Davenport's adopted daughter Letty Davenport. Letty is in her mid-20s and a graduate of Stanford. She works for a U.S. senator named Christopher Colles in a desk job but she's bored with her assignments. Then the senator offers her a chance to go into the field as a liaison between his office and the Department of Homeland Security.  In her first assignment in that position, she is sent to Texas along with DHS investigator John Kaiser to try to find out what is happening in regard to thefts of crude oil. The senator is not so concerned about the lost oil but wants to know where the money from its sale is going. Who is selling the oil and what they are doing with the profits? The suspicion is that a particularly nasty militia group led by a woman is involved. Letty and Kaiser head out to Texas, de...
Read more

Poetry Sunday: Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman

You probably remember poet Amanda Gorman from her appearance at the inauguration of President Biden. She read her poem "The Hill We Climb" on that occasion. After the senseless slaughter in Uvalde this week, she was inspired to write another poem which was published in The New York Times. It seemed perfect for the occasion and so I stole it in order to feature it here, just in case you didn't get a chance to read it in the Times . Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman Everything hurts, Our hearts shadowed and strange, Minds made muddied and mute. We carry tragedy, terrifying and true. And yet none of it is new; We knew it as home, As horror, As heritage. Even our children Cannot be children, Cannot be. Everything hurts. It’s a hard time to be alive, And even harder to stay that way. We’re burdened to live out these days, While at the same time, blessed to outlive them. This alarm is how we know We must be altered — That we must differ or die, That we must triumph or try. ...
Read more