The Nature of Things

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : Great Blue Heron photographed at the South Texas Birding Center on South Padre Island. *~*~*~* In 2014, I read Elizabeth Kolbert's book The Sixth Extinction . It outlined the five previous great extinction events that Earth has suffered and made the case that the sixth such event is underway, caused this time by human actions. It was a chilling read. Now, according to recently released research, there can be little doubt that a biological annihilation of wildlife in recent decades means that the sixth extinction event is indeed happening . *~*~*~* Another new report says that it is a mistake to focus just on extinctions; population declines can be just as troubling and the extirpation of a species in a particular location can be a first step toward extinction and should garner more attention and preventive action.  *~*~*~* We don't generally think of predators as having predators but, of course, they do. Recently...

Here's some of what I've been reading while the world of journalism is focused on collusion and conspiracy. ~~~ One of my early literary loves was Daphne du Maurier. There was a time as a teenager when I tried to read everything she had written. She occupied a pedestal in my literary pantheon, along with Arthur Conan Doyle, Tolstoy, Agatha Christie, and Zane Grey. (I was an eclectic reader even as a teenager.)  In time I fell out of love with Grey, but I've retained a fondness for my other early loves, especially du Maurier. How I loved her gothic thriller/romances! The books were wonderful and so were the movies based on the books. I devoured them all.  So, I was happy to see an appreciation of her writing in The New York Times recently. Pahrul Seghal's "In Praise of Daphne du Maurier" reminded me of all the things I loved - and still love - about her writing. ~~~ The Pew Research Center continuously conducts polls about all sorts of things. The results of ...

For years we've been hearing about problems facing bees, especially honeybees. There is colony collapse disorder, mites, pesticides, in addition to all the predators and disease which the little insects have to face. It is daunting to say the least and bee populations have been declining drastically year after year. Well, now I have some anecdotal evidence to add to that sad litany. My garden has always been visited by lots of bees, both native bees and honeybees. In past years, there have been hundreds, thousands even, of honeybees buzzing around the yard on a hot summer day, sipping from flowers, lining up around the edges of the birdbaths to get water, or crowding onto my inefficient hummingbird feeder to gather the drips of sugar water that leak out. I don't know where they came from; perhaps there was a neighbor who was a beekeeper or they may have been bees that had gone feral, but they were present in great numbers. This is a picture from last year when there were plenty...

A trip to the rural countryside of southwestern France seemed like a good option for a few summer days' read. Martin Walker's "Bruno, Chief of Police" series has been dependably entertaining, so I picked up the next book in the series and immersed myself in the culture and concerns of the little town of Saint-Denis where men are manly, women are womanly, and children are mostly offstage except when their presence is required for dramatic effect. The life of Saint-Denis revolves around wine, cooking, rugby, affairs of the heart, cheese, and truffles. Oh, and politics. Politics seems at the heart of most activities in the community. We soon learn in Black Diamond that all is not wine and truffles in the lives of the citizens of the town. Tensions have arisen over immigrants coming into the area, some of whom have entered illegally, aided by human smugglers.  As the story develops, we learn that the Chinese are at the center of the smuggling operation and they are clash...

Recently, we have been in a cycle of late afternoon thunderstorms, following very hot and humid summer days. Sometimes the thunder brings much appreciated rain with it; sometimes not. Like the poet Philip Larkin, I, too, am summer-born, and although summer is not my favorite season, I find that the older I get, the less I mind its inconveniences. And, unlike the poet's mother, I do love a good summer storm that clears and freshens the air and reminds us that a break in the heat is coming. Winter may not be coming to Southeast Texas, but more pleasant weather is, if we can just hold out until October! Mother, Summer, I by Philip Larkin My mother, who hates thunder storms, Holds up each summer day and shakes It out suspiciously, lest swarms Of grape-dark clouds are lurking there; But when the August weather breaks And rains begin, and brittle frost Sharpens the bird-abandoned air, Her worried summer look is lost, And I her son, though summer-born And summer-loving, none the less Am e...

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : Female Ruby-throated Hummingbird feeding from Hamelia patens  (Hummingbird bush) blossoms. *~*~*~* A new wolf pack has been discovered in California. Called the Lassen Pack for the county where they were found, this is only the second pack of gray wolves known to be in California since their extirpation there in the 1920s. The pack consists of an adult pair and their three pups. The adult female has been captured and fitted with a tracking collar so that the pack can be monitored. The first pack of wolves found in the state in this century was the so-called Shasta Pack in eastern Siskiyou County in 2015. The current status of that pack is unknown although one of the pups from it was detected in northwestern Nevada in November 2016. *~*~*~* Different populations of the same species of bird may migrate to different locations based on their genetic make-up . That was the conclusion of a recent study of Willow Warblers in S...

Relationships between mothers and daughters are often fraught with constant stress and worry on the mother's part and rebelliousness and defiance on the daughter's part as she struggles to assert herself and grow independent of the mother's restraints. Having been both a daughter and a mother of daughters, I see the conflict from both sides.  No mother/daughter relationship could be more fraught, however, than that of Chinese mothers and daughters. At least that is the message that I take from Amy Tan's much acclaimed and truly wonderful book. This book tells the stories of a group of Chinese women, immigrants to this country living in San Francisco, and their daughters, all born in America and all American in the fullest sense. The elder women emigrated to escape the tragedy and poverty of their native country, but, in their new country, they did their best to establish and preserve the culture which they knew and revered. They waged their battle to protect and keep th...