The Nature of Things

  A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : A Phainopepla stops by a desert water source in the Chihuahua Nature Center in West Texas. *~*~*~* The previous administration in Washington removed endangered species status for the gray wolf last year. That allowed the state of Wisconsin to authorize a  recent week-long hunt for the animals. They set a quota of 119 wolves that could be killed in that time. In less than 60 hours, hunters killed 216 wolves . The remainder of the time for the hunt was canceled. Environmentalists say the large number of gray wolves killed in such a short time underscores the need to reinstate protections for the species.  *~*~*~* Asian songbirds are being trapped and sold as singing caged birds at such an alarming rate that the practice threatens to cause the extinction in the wild of several species. *~*~*~* The rate of decline of various species of butterflies in the western United States is so calamitous that it threatens th...

  I was very excited to get my hands on the new Chang-Rae Lee book. I've heard and read so much praise for his previous books, none of which I had ever read even though I had the best intentions of doing so. So I jumped at the chance to read this one. I found his writing to be very controlled, directed, and philosophical in the way that he developed his narrative. The narrative, in other words, seemed to take us exactly where Lee wanted us to go, but that was not necessarily a good place. Lee's protagonist is a 20-year-old college student from New Jersey named Tiller, who at the time that we meet him has had some sort of traumatic experience that has brought him, for reasons that are unknown, to the Hong Kong airport, where he meets Val, a single mother in her 30s who is also from New Jersey. It turns out they have things in common; Val, too, has had some kind of trauma in her life and they are each one-eighth Asian in heritage and both are only children. These commonalities fo...

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, beat poet, playwright, publisher, and free speech activist died last week at the age of 101. As a publisher, perhaps his crowning achievement was to publish Allen Ginsberg's Howl and Other Poems in 1956. He also helped other beat writers such as Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs to reach readers. Ferlinghetti's most famous collection of poems was A Coney Island of the Mind which was published in 1958. Here is one of his poems from an earlier collection, These Are My Rivers , published in 1955. I thought it was a good example of the jazzy rhythms and earthy imagery of so many of his poems. I hope you enjoy it. Away above a Harborful . . . by Lawrence Ferlinghetti Away above a harborful                                               of caul...

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment :  A Purple Finch and Pine Siskin feed on black-oil sunflower seeds scattered on the ground. My winter bird watching has been greatly enhanced by the irruption of Purple Finches to this area. At times I've witnessed a dozen or more at one of my feeders. In most winters I'm lucky to see one or two. *~*~*~* Anthropocentric as we are, we have mostly focused on the suffering of our own species in regard to our recent experience with the polar vortex, but it has been a disaster for some wildlife as well. Some more endangered species may be pushed to the brink of extinction because of it. *~*~*~* In other bad news related to that weather event, oil refineries, chemical manufacturers, and other industrial plants in Texas reported releasing around 3.5 million pounds of extra pollutants into the air during last week’s freezing temperatures. The Houston region accounted for one-fifth of excess emissions of toxic chemicals....

  “. . .in August in Mississippi there’s a few days somewhere about the middle of the month when suddenly there’s a foretaste of fall, it’s cool, there’s a lambence, a soft, a luminous quality to the light, as though it came not from just today but from back in the old classic times. It might have fauns and satyrs and the gods and---from Greece, from Olympus in it somewhere. It lasts just for a day or two, then it’s gone. . .the title reminded me of that time, of a luminosity older than our Christian civilization.” - William Faulkner writing of Light in August I try to read at least one Faulkner book every year if only to remind myself of where I come from. Light in August certainly accomplishes that.  I have read a number of Faulkner's books, some of them multiple times, but I had never read this one before. Most of his books deal in some way with the racism that was pervasive in the Mississippi that he knew, but often the references are oblique or are buried in the narrativ...

  Robin Wall Kimmerer is a trained botanist who, as a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, is also a firm believer in the indigenous wisdom that values the other beings with whom we share this planet, both plant and animal. She particularly embraces the idea that plants with their long history of living on Earth have much to teach us, that they are in fact our oldest and best teachers. The Native American consciousness acknowledges our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world and the generosity of Earth in providing everything that we need to live. "In the indigenous view, humans are viewed as somewhat lesser beings in the democracy of species. We are referred to as the younger brothers of Creation, so like younger brothers we must learn from our elders. Plants were here first and have had a long time to figure things out. They live both above and below the ground and hold the earth in place. Plants know how to make food from light and water. Not only do they ...

There have been a lot of "snow days" over the past ten days or so, even in places that don't usually have snow like here in Southeast Texas. Even though the weather brought hardship because our state's power grid was not prepared for it, many kids still found joy in the white stuff. For many, it was the first time they had ever seen snow. Billy Collins writes of a snow day when the schools are closed and the girls "whispering by the fence" are plotting ways to have fun in the snow.   Snow Day by Billy Collins Today we woke up to a revolution of snow,    its white flag waving over everything, the landscape vanished, not a single mouse to punctuate the blankness,    and beyond these windows the government buildings smothered, schools and libraries buried, the post office lost    under the noiseless drift, the paths of trains softly blocked, the world fallen under this falling. In a while, I will put on some boots and step out like som...