The Nature of Things

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment :  This dapper looking guy is the Black-headed Grosbeak , also called the Western Grosbeak and it is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week . It can be found throughout western North America in its preferred habitat of forests and forest edges. It sometimes hybridizes with the Rose-breasted Grosbeak where the two species' ranges overlap.  *~*~*~* The Environmental Protection Agency in its current iteration appears not to be mainly interested in protecting the environment. *~*~*~* It isn't often that a previously unknown plant is discovered in one of our national parks, but that is what has just happened in Big Bend National Park.  *~*~*~* The Musk/Trump administration's mass firing of federal employees has hit hard at the agencies that manage and protect our national parks and lands. The Forest Service firings in particular have wreaked havoc on rural areas . *~*~*~* The American chestnut tree ...

And now for something completely different...  Sideman by Paul Muldoon I’ll be the Road Runner To your Wile E Coyote I’ll take you in my stride I’ll be a Sancho Panza To your Don Quixote Your ever faithful guide I’ll stand by you in the lists With our market strategists I’ll be your sideman, baby, I’ll be by your side I’ll be a Keith Richards To your Mick Jagger Before he let things slide I’ll be Sears to your Roebuck Before he took the headstaggers And opened nationwide I'll support you at Wembley I may require some assembly But I'll be your sideman, baby, I'll be by your side I’ll be McCartney to your Lennon Lenin to your Marx Jerry to your Ben & Lewis to your Clark Burke to your Hare James Bond to your Q Booboo to your Yogi Bear Tigger to your Pooh Trigger to your Roy Rogers Roy to your Siegfried Fagin to your Artful Dodger I guess I’ll let you take the lead I’ll be a Chingachgook To your Leatherstocking A blaze of fur and hide Our shares consolidated Our directorate...

  A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : In spite of its name, the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week , the Yellow Cardinal , is not a cardinal at all. It is a member of the tanager family. Found in southern South America from Argentina to Uruguay, it is a resident of open woodlands and dry savannas. It is endangered and, unfortunately, its numbers are decreasing. *~*~*~* The new administration in Washington has set about dismantling laws that protect the environment in order to facilitate oil and gas drilling. Can the Endangered Species Act survive? *~*~*~* At the remote Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the Pacific, Wisdom, the (at least) 74-year-old Laysan Albatross , has a new chick . Isn't it adorable? *~*~*~* Wisdom's history is an amazing story of survival in many ways. *~*~*~* A black anglerfish, a fish of the ocean's depths, caused quite a stir when it appeared on the surface of the ocean near Tenerife recently. Obvio...

( Note to readers: Oops! I had meant to post this earlier and, in fact, imagined that I had. Silly me! ) I came across this poem last week and it was as if it had been written just for me. It perfectly expressed how I felt - a timely reminder that regardless of the nonsense coming out of certain quarters, the world continues in the meantime. In the Meantime by Tom Hirons Meanwhile, flowers still bloom. The moon rises, and the sun. Babies smile and somewhere, Against all the odds, Two people are falling in love. Strangers share cigarettes and jokes. Light plays on the surface of water. Grace occurs on unlikely streets And we hold each other fast Against entropy, the fires and the flood. Life leans towards living And, while death claims all things at the end,  There were such precious times between,  In which everything was radiant  And we loved, again, this world.

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : The traffic at the bird feeders has been heavy this week. Frequent visitors have been Red-winged Blackbirds , like this female.  *~*~*~* The new administration's pro fossil fuel agenda is a threat to our national monuments . *~*~*~* And right on cue, the administration has killed a major report that was due on the state of Nature in the country. Those who worked on the report are hoping to publish it anyway. *~*~*~* Also thanks to the new administration, plastic straws will be returning to our lives, because, you know, that's what he ran on. *~*~*~* The president has nominated an oil industry insider to oversee drilling on public lands, because, of course, there will be drilling on public lands.  *~*~*~* Here are the species we lost in 2024. *~*~*~* Pollution from factory farms can be seen from space . *~*~*~* A new study has found that people do actually pay attention to and are willing to follow expert clim...

I've featured this poem here before and I probably will again. It is a personal favorite of mine and is the most perfect poetic expression of love that I know. Valentine's Day is coming up, the day on which we celebrate our love. I hope that you, dear reader, have much love to celebrate on that day. Sonnets from the Portuguese - #43 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of being and ideal grace. I love thee to the level of every day’s Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. I love thee freely, as men strive for right; I love thee purely, as they turn from praise. I love thee with the passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.