The ivory-billed woodpecker lives! That is the announcement made several weeks ago by ornithologist Lester Short of the American Museum of Natural History.
Nature
The Ivory-billed woodpecker • By John James Audubon (1785–1851) (Public Domain)
Uluru, or Ayers Rock • Photo by Vvfilippov ((CC BY-SA 4.0)
Comets, bandicoots and Dreamland
I recently returned from Australia, where I went to view Halley’s Comet. Every night we watched the comet move among the brilliant stars of the Southern Milky Way. We also experienced a wealth of terrestrial natural history.
18th C. engraving of Selborne village (Public Domain)
The world of Gilbert White
Exactly 200 years ago on this date [April 21, 1786], Gilbert White heard the voice of the cuckoo in the woods above Selborne village. Gilbert White was the curate of Selborne, a tiny village nested in a quiet dale about 40 miles southwest of London. The village has changed little since White’s day, and has become a place of pilgrimage for all who love nature.
Barred grass snake • Benny Trapp (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The real story on Ireland’s snakes
In this space a year ago on Saint Patrick’s Day I wrote a little natural history of the shamrock. In that piece I said there was no evidence to suggest that Saint Patrick ever used the semi-mythical three-petaled plant to illustrate a lesson on the Trinity.
The green flash at sunset • ESO/G. Lombardi (CC By 3.0)
Elusive beauty of the green flash
For 20 years I have looked for the green flash. I have looked from mountain tops and from canyon rims. I have looked from the coasts of two continents. I have looked at sunrise and I have looked at sunset. I have not seen it.
Gavia immer, or Common Loon • Photo by John Picken (CC BY 2.0)
For the loon, a cry of distress
In autumn Thoreau listened for the sound of the loon on Walden Pond. He called it “a wild sound, heard afar and suited to the wildest lake.” Another time he heard “a long-drawn unearthly howl, probably more like a wolf than any bird.” We need, said Thoreau, “the tonic of wildness.” The loon’s voice was part of that tonic.
Davidia involucrata • Photo by Myrabella (CC BY SA 4.0)
Arduous trek through China for beauty
On the southern slope of Bussey Hill in Boston’s Arnold Arboretum there are two trees of the species Davidia involucrata. For most of the year the trees are inconspicuous. But in mid-May, at about the time the lilacs bloom, Davidia flowers. Each flower cluster has two leafy bracts that become snowy white as the flowers mature. One bract is about the size of a man’s hand, the other, half that size. When Davidia is in bloom is looks as if a thousand white doves are fluttering in the branches of the tree.
Eastern meadowlark • Photo by synspectrum (CC BY 2.0)
A melancholy song of spring
This morning he was there, hiding in a meadow beaten flat by winter, in a cavity of crumpled grass that had been abandoned for a deeper burrow by some still-sleeping creature. Spring was hiding that borrowed nest. It was the middle of March and meadowlark was back!
Trifolium dubium (lesser trefoil) • (CC BY SA 3.0)
Tracking the ‘true shamrock’
March is the time for wearing of the green. Shamrocks will sprout as thick as dandelions in July. From Boston to San Francisco, from New York City to Sydney, Australia, Irish men and women will be sporting the small green emblem of the Emerald Isle.
Gall on oak leaf • Photo by Berthold Werner (CC BY SA 3.0)
Plant galls: home for insects
The season has stripped the woods bare. The leafy veils have dropped. Now it’s all rock, bark, spike, and spine. And galls.