The Nature of Things

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : The Common Gallinule was not so common at Brazos Bend State Park today. In fact, this is the only one that I saw.  On the other hand, his cousin, the American Coot was very common - as always. Birds, in general, were scarce at the park today and I did not see a single duck! *~*~*~* The Great Backyard Bird Count is under way . The count takes place over the four days of the Presidents' Day Weekend and it is no longer a count done only in North America. Birders around the world can participate. Last year, India reported more species of birds - more than 800 - than any other country. So far this year, my count has been meager and disappointing.  *~*~*~* Native bees pollinate much more effectively than honeybees, so it is ironic that so much attention is paid to the plight of the honeybee and so little to native bees, who are also affected by many of the same things as the honeybees. In particular, the overuse and mis...

Ever since it was announced that there would be a movie made from the popular book, fans of Fifty Shades of Grey have been in impatient and fevered anticipation of its release. Now the fever has broken. The movie is in the theaters just in time for Valentine's Day and its millions of fans, as well as the merely curious, are filling up those theaters. It really makes no difference, I think, whether the movie is any good. Based on all the reviews that I've seen of it so far, it is very far from good . But then it makes no difference what the reviewers write either. Its fans will not be swayed by movie reviews any more than they were swayed by book reviews . To be honest, I still haven't read the book. I couldn't make myself do it, not even in the name of scientific curiosity. I am a constant reader, but I try to limit myself to books that I believe I will have a reasonable chance to enjoy. A book about bondage, discipline, dominance, submission, sadism and masochism didn...

Angels Flight by Michael Connelly My rating: 4 of 5 stars After reading Trunk Music , the fifth book in the Harry Bosch series, I was intrigued with the arc that Harry's story seemed to be taking and I couldn't wait to learn more, so I jumped right into reading number six, Angels Flight . The title refers to a popular trolley ride, popular both with tourists and with the locals. One late night one of the trolley trains becomes the scene of a crime that will rip Los Angeles apart. A famous civil rights lawyer, who has frequently been successful in suing the city, is shot and killed there. It is believed by the police that the lawyer was the target of the killer, but also dead is a woman, a housekeeper who was on her way home from work. The lawyer was much hated in the police department and the squad that would normally be assigned to investigate his murder just happens to be the target of his latest suit against the department. That case was to go to trial the following week. I...

This Daily Kos   cartoon by Jen Sorensen may hit just a little too close to home for comfort for some of us. We are becoming a race of techno-zombies. Technology has made it possible for us to virtually live our lives through that flat screen that we sit in front of, perpetually mesmerized and oblivious to what's happening around us.  People who walk down a crowded street with a phone glued to their ear, never seeing their fellow human beings with whom they share the street, are just one of the annoying examples of techno-zombies. Family members, sitting in the same room, each transfixed by the image on their own iPads, are another. They are physically present in the same space but their emotions and consciousness are somewhere in the ethersphere. Maybe we all need to shut down those screens for a while and get outside and have a tactile experience with the real world. We might even like it. And I don't think there's an app for that.

Monarch butterfly on milkweed photographed in my backyard last summer. Monarch butterflies are one of those charismatic animals, like pandas or Bald Eagles , that it seems everyone wants to save. All this good will makes one wonder how they came to be in such trouble in the first place. And make no mistake, the Monarch is in big trouble. In the late 1990s, the butterfly's population was about one billion individuals. In the past few years that has fallen by 90 percent. That is a catastrophic decline any way you look at it. Humans have finally begun to take notice of that decline and to actually admit that they might have a little bit to do with it. For a species that finds it hard to acknowledge that global climate change is happening, even in the face of overwhelming scientific data, that admission is a big step. Having admitted culpability, many are seeking ways to make amends and to reverse the butterfly's trend toward extinction. On Monday, a major effort in that regard was...

If yesterday's Browning love sonnet didn't put you in the mood for Valentine's Day, perhaps today's cartoon will. It's a changing world and Valentine's Day card sentiments must change in order to keep up with the times. Tom Tomorrow is on the job! (Hat tip to Daily Kos .)   

Next Saturday is Valentine's Day, so time for a love poem, I think. And what better one than this very famous Elizabeth Barrett Browning sonnet? It says it all for lovers everywhere, from every age. How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43) by Elizabeth Barrett Browning ,  1806  -  1861 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.