The Nature of Things

  A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : Black Skimmers in the late evening sun photographed on the beach at Rockport, Texas. *~*~*~* Once again federal scientists are predicting an "above average" Atlantic hurricane season . This follows the record season in 2020 when there were 30 named storms. The scientists say there could be 13 to 20 named storms this year with 6 to 10 being hurricanes and perhaps 3 to 5 reaching category 3 status or above. *~*~*~* And on the other side of the continent, severe drought, made worse by climate change, is ravaging the West . Heat and shifting weather patterns have also intensified wildfires and sharply reduced water supplies across the Southwest, Pacific Coast, and North Dakota. *~*~*~* A new study warns of "zombie fires." With a changing climate, fires in northern forests that smolder through winter and erupt again in spring are expected to become more common. *~*~*~* And now we are seeing climate refug...

    A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : White Ibises  in flight photographed off South Padre Island, Texas. *~*~*~* An Environmental Protection Agency report that was delayed for years by the previous administration was released on Wednesday and the news is not good. The report documents the changes that are a signal that  climate change caused at least partly by human activity is intensifying  and negatively affecting public health and the environment. *~*~*~* In other EPA action this week, the agency  ordered a controversial refinery  on St. Croix in the Virgin Island to be shut for 60 days because it poses an imminent threat to human health. The refinery had been permitted to open by the previous administration. Since February, it had showered oil on local residents twice, spewed sulfuric gases into the surrounding area, and released hydrocarbons into the air.  *~*~*~* New research indicates that a third of  global ...

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment :  A Clapper Rail with one of her chicks. There were four altogether, but I could never get them all to cooperate and pose for a picture. They were photographed at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge on the Texas coast. *~*~*~* The previous administration in Washington had seriously weakened the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which is the main legal protection for migratory birds in North America. Now the Biden administration has proposed its new rule that will revoke that change and restore the protections originally provided by the 102-year-old law.  *~*~*~* Last Friday was Arbor Day which has been marked by Americans for 149 years. The emphasis of the day is planting trees but it is just as important to protect and preserve the ones that we have . *~*~*~* The Biden administration has canceled all construction of the southern border wall that had been financed with funds from the Defense Department's budget. It is not cle...

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment :  The Eastern Kingbirds have arrived in the area, along with tanagers, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks , and, allegedly, Baltimore Orioles , although I confess I haven't yet encountered any orioles. Nevertheless, my oranges are out and waiting for them! *~*~*~* Scientists have counted more than 25,000 barrels in waters off the California coast that are believed to contain DDT-laced industrial waste. It is believed that this may help to explain the extraordinarily high rate of cancer in adult sea lions in the area. Some of the barrels may have been languishing there for at least 70 years. DDT was banned in the United States in 1972. *~*~*~* On Wednesday, Senate Democrats employed an obscure law in order to resurrect Obama-era regulations on limiting emissions of methane . The regulations had been wiped out by the previous administration. *~*~*~* Native American lawmakers in Montana have called on President Biden to help craft ...

  A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : The Barn Swallows are nesting. *~*~*~* President Biden has pledged to slash the country's greenhouse gas emissions by one-half by the end of the decade. The action is part of an aggressive push to combat climate change and to persuade other countries around the world to take similar steps.  *~*~*~* Hope is the thing with feathers as Emily Dickinson once told us. It is also an essential element in saving the things with feathers, as well as the rest of Nature. Hope and conservation go hand in hand. *~*~*~* The Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf happened eleven years ago and its effects are still being felt. We have learned a lot about the ecology of the Gulf and about the risks of deep water drilling in the past eleven years, but are we now any safer from another such disaster? *~*~*~* And what about the animals that were rescued from that disaster eleven years ago? Many of the birds were taken to Georgia to ...

  A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : A Double-crested Cormorant perches on a post at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge on the Texas coast. *~*~*~* A recent study suggests that only about 3% of the world's ecosystems remain ecologically intact with healthy populations of all its original animals and an undisturbed habitat. *~*~*~* Even if we manage to drastically cut greenhouse emissions it will take time before the change translates to an improvement in the atmosphere. That is because those gases already added to the atmosphere persist over a long period of time. The decades of accumulation of such gases will take centuries to completely dissipate. *~*~*~* The European bison as firefighter? Maybe, at least in a manner of speaking. It seems that the bison loves to graze on the shrubs and underbrush that feed wildfires and reintroducing them to areas of the continent where they had become extinct could help in fighting or even preventing those fires. *...