The Nature of Things

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : Glossy Ibis *~*~*~* One of the many depressing facts about the presidential and vice-presidential debates this year has been that there has literally not been one single question about the biggest challenge facing our planet, the challenge that could ultimately make the place uninhabitable for human life. That, of course, is climate change. Meantime, in September, carbon dioxide passed the symbolic 400 parts per million , never to return below it in our lifetime, according to scientists. This is a reminder that day by day we are moving further from the climate humans have known and thrived in and closer to a more unstable future. *~*~*~* A new study provides even more evidence that the current harsh drought in California may be only a glimmer of what is to come. Warming temperatures and uncertain rainfall mean that if more isn't done to combat climate change, megadroughts lasting thirty-five years could blight western...

Well, that was a surprise. Only yesterday I was in a discussion about who might win the Nobel Prize for Literature this year and speculating on whether it might be the first American to win the prize since Toni Morrison in 1993. My contribution to the discussion was that there was not the least chance that it would be an American. My record as a prophet is intact. On the other hand, when you think about it, the only appropriate response seems to be "What took them so long?" After all, he has catalogued our lives and made unique poetry from our chaotic culture for more than fifty years. I can hardly even remember a time when I wasn't listening to that poetry and thinking, "Yes! He got it just right!" Bob Dylan was and is truly the bard of my generation of Americans. He has spoken for us on so many occasions when it was hard to find our voice and has given us a rallying point for understanding and moving forward in the interesting era in which we live. He was reco...

"God said, Let there be pain. And there was poetry. Eventually." - from Nutshell And eventually, luckily for us, there was Ian McEwan, a writer who routinely delivers such lyrical prose that a dedicated reader could weep for pure joy. In Nutshell , he's done it again. How can one adequately describe this weird and wonderful little novel? The plot is based on Shakespeare's Hamlet, but our narrator is an eighth-month fetus, preternaturally aware and attuned to the ways of the world. He resides "upside down in a woman" and is privy to all that the woman is privy to, including the plot devised by her and her lover (her brother-in-law) to kill her husband, our narrator's father. McEwan's tale is essentially a two-hundred page soliloquy by that fetus as he watches in horror as their plan proceeds. It is absurd but dazzlingly imaginative and clever and somehow manages to be both suspenseful and profound. It is philosophical in range, in its view of a world ...

Billy Collins is not a rhyming sort of poet. In fact, if the lines of one of his poems ever rhyme, it seems like an accident. So, perhaps it is not surprising that the title of his new book is The Rain in Portugal . (See what he did there? You were expecting maybe Spain?) He addresses the non-rhymingness of his poetry in one of the poems in the book. And it is called, of course, "On Rhyme." He addresses it with the quirky humor for which his poetry is famous. On Rhyme by Billy Collins It's possible that a stitch in time might save as many as twelve or as few as three, and I have no trouble remembering that September has thirty days. So do June, November, and April. I like a cat wearing a chapeau or a trilby, Little Jack Horner sitting on a sofa, old men who are not from Nantucket, and how life can seem almost unreal when you are gently rowing a boat down a stream. That's why instead of recalling today that it mostly pours in Spain, I am going to picture the rain in Po...

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : A male Red-bellied Woodpecker pays a visit to one of my suet cakes. *~*~*~* Although the ultimate amount of damage done by Hurricane Matthew in our country is still to be determined, it can in no way compare to the utter devastation visited on much of our poor island neighbor, Haiti, a nation still recovering from its last major natural disaster of the magnitude 7 earthquake of 2010. It is truly heartbreaking. If you are in a position to do so, please make a donation to one of the NGOs that provide assistance in the recovery effort. I can personally recommend Oxfam , but, of course, there are many others. Just be sure to investigate before you give.  *~*~*~* Seawalls are among the best defenses against sea level rise and against storm surge during hurricanes but they limit the amount of beachfront available for shorebird habitats . Studies have found that half as many organisms and a quarter fewer species live on beache...