Sandhill Cranes Migrating through Colorado

Nice photography. 

https://www.denverpost.com/2022/03/15/s … ey-photos/

Good to see the Sandhills doing so well. I've never been to Bosque, the capital of the Sandhill Cranes but someday I hope to go..
BUT I'll share a story, actually a couple...
There are currently about 800 Whooping Cranes in existence, making them quite endangered. When I was in 3rd grade, and that was about 60 years ago, I read a story about Whooping Cranes in my Weekly Reader, remember those? It must have had quite an impact on me because I remember it very well. Anyway in about 1960 there were only 29 Whooping Cranes in the the world at that time putting them close to extinction. If even one breeding bird died it was a big deal. They would migrate from their summer grounds to their winter grounds in Texas. I was known where every bird was at any given time except during the migration. As they arrived in Texas it was always a nail biter  because they didn't always survive the journey. Fast forward and there are 800 today, still a pretty alarmingly low number.
Story 2:  My cousin was a wildlife biologist for the Fish & Game Service. In his more than 40 years with them he was in charge of two BIG projects. His 1st was to bring the Bald Eagle back from it's famously low numbers after the DDT scare. That project turned out quite successful as all of you Bald Eagle photographers are aware of.
His second big project, based out of Santa Barbara CA was to re-establish the California Condor back into the wild which was another successful project.
Today he is retired and working with a couple of private wildlife organizations to re-introduce the Condor back into the Rio Grande area, another of the condors native habitats from which they were almost completely wiped out!
The good thing is that I've got a standing invitation to go on one of his trips and photograph Condors!!!
John

Earth day 2022

https://www.thefarside.com/?referrer=ht … side-promo

Beached 20m Sperm Whale on China's coast rescued
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-04-21/B … index.html

Litter cleanup in Tahoe.

https://apnews.com/article/science-lake … 1e1bdc1499

https://apnews.com/article/world-econom … b35e15c527


DAVOS DIARY: Train, not plane means scenery, carbon cutting
By KELVIN CHAN

Judge throws out Trump-era rollbacks on endangered species

https://apnews.com/article/biden-califo … ed4043ca9a

https://thehill.com/changing-america/su … -furnaces/

California plans to phase out the use of natural gas in home heating by 2030

Gannets and Bonaventure Island

https://apnews.com/article/gannets-bird … osition_09

Rediscovery of a bird thought to be extinct:
"The black-naped pheasant-pigeon is a large, ground-dwelling pigeon with a broad tail"

Cool bird.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/19/world/bl … index.html

Some years ago, I was visiting my oldest brother at his place in southwest Montana. It was a bitter cold winter. I am an old Floridan so I'm used to warmer climes. On a cold sunny day, my brother and I set out on a photo mission, to shoot some landscapes or anything else that passed in front of our lenses. I was surprised to see Sandhill Cranes in the area since I've only seen them here in Florida. In Florida, Sandhills are almost domesticated, and of course their call is unique when they fly.

BUFFALO❄️: four feet!!!! ?

News reporter said “four inches” then corrected her forecast.
How are our MM colleagues in those less-than-warm climes surviving/thriving?!😉

As important, does the unprecedented precipitation bode well for some unique photography notwithstanding shelter-in-place requests from authorities?!☃️📷

EDIT ADD:
Looks like estimate was low… https://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/buffalo-snow-2022 77” in Orchard Park?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orchard_Park_(town),_New_York?wprov=sfti1 14127

Me thinks it safe to say that not in a hundred years will this happen in Orlando!
Possibly in a thousand years but still super unlikely that climate change will be THAT wierd🤯

Snowstorm comedy: bad morning? https://youtu.be/WJMBwBUP5CQ  (under minute)

This is an old story but a day I will never forget.

June 21st is my birthday, the summer solstice. I was 21 (46 years ago) and living in a home-made teepee out in the Mendocino foothills just north west of Clear Lake.

There were 4 of us sharing 40 acres, monthly bill was about $45 for my share of the land payment. Hippies!!!

That day 2 of us decided to go walking around the hills, canyons and creeks in search of an edible animal that we could shoot and eat. We had one 410 shotgun, a single shot. I was carrying it since I was familiar with firearms and how to handle them safely.

We came around a "corner" in the deer trail and a HUGE golden eagle was startled and hurled itself into the sky on a downward trajectory above the slope. It dropped the dead rabbit that it was eating, began working it's magnificent wings and started rising up into the sky. A glorious sight, we watched in fascination. I never raised the gun, there was no question of ever shooting such a magnificent creature. As it flew away, we continued on our hike.

Because we were idiots, we'd gone out into the middle of the summer day, when most animals are hiding in the shade somewhere. After a good long hike, we started heading back to our home site, nary a shot fired or even a gun aimed, there was nothing to consider.

On the way back, we heard a murder of crows, cawing loudly. We weren't thinking of shooting them, we just wanted to see what they were up to with all that noise. As we got closer, we saw that the crows had a HUGE owl cornered in one of the upper crotches of a large oak tree. They knew better than to get too close but they tormented the owl mercilessly and the owl knew that trying to fly away would result in it's doom so it stayed right where it was.

We watched that for a while and then went home, no luck, no food. Still, an incomparable birthday gift to see those birds!!

That evening we walked down to visit some friends and they had a baby goat, a buck that they did not want. The mama goats supplied milk and cheese but a buck was useless.
So our friend Don blew it's head off with a a gun and we had grilled baby goat for supper.

And that's my "21 on the 21st" story.

The original peoples of the western Untied States, getting buffalo back.

https://apnews.com/article/science-trav … dc40a932b2

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watc … -wildlife/

Major animal poaching ring busted by CA Fish and Wildlife

3 bald eagles die, 10 sick after eating euthanized animals

https://apnews.com/article/health-eagle … 4b0c0cedcc

https://apnews.com/article/business-cli … 805f0711a9

WASHINGTON (AP) — 3M will phase out the manufacturing of so-called “forever chemicals” and try to get them out of all their products within two years, the chemical and consumer products maker said Tuesday.

The decision announced Tuesday arrives after U.S. environmental regulators designated the chemicals — used in nonstick frying pans, water-repellent sports gear, stain-resistant rugs, cosmetics and countless other consumer products since the 1940s - as hazardous substances under the Superfund law.

PFAS have been voluntarily phased out by U.S. manufacturers but are still in limited use and remain in the environment because they do not degrade over time.

3M said its decision was based on multiple factors, including “accelerating regulatory trends focused on reducing or eliminating the presence” of the chemicals in the environment.

The chemicals can accumulate and persist in the human body for long periods of time, and evidence from animal and human studies indicates that exposure to PFAS may lead to cancer or other health problems, including damage to organs including the liver, kidneys and thyroid gland.

In a November lawsuit, the state of California accused 3M, Dupont and 16 smaller companies of covering up the harm caused to the environment and the public from chemicals manufactured by the firms that have over decades found their way into waterways and human bloodstreams.

Do not ‘push a slower friend down’ if you encounter a bear, National Park Service warns

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/bear … index.html

Alaska’s Fisheries Are Collapsing.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/ … e-00066843

Many years ago, the Tarheels had cut down forests of turpentine pine in their own locale and moved to Skagit County in Washington State. They founded 2 small towns in Skagit Valley - Sedro and Wooley. These two towns grew together and became Sedro-Wooley.

Some of the Tarheels who came here like to eat the Virginia Opossum. They brought some of them along and let them go.
Which is why there is a range from British Columbia down into Oregon for North America's only marsupial.

https://thehill.com/opinion/congress-bl … xtinction/

A reminder of the importance of the Endangered Species Act

Again I recommend "American Buffalo," a documentary by Ken Burns.

Staggering.

When I was in college, I traveled down to the Jersey shore to see an Osprey.  I have seen more than I can count since then.
This summer I saw one alight in a snag above the Perkiomen Creek at a swimming hole I use to take my horse for a swim.

The first Bald Eagle I saw was when I lived in Florida.  Once, while picnicking along the Kissimmee River, I saw one over head.  As I watched it, I saw another much higher over it and then a third, much higher than that so that it was only visible because of the sun hitting the white feathers.

I don't remember the circumstances involving the first one I saw in Pennsylvania.  However, this summer I saw numerous mature and immature Bald Eagles along the same stretch of the Perkiomen, plus s few more a few miles each way up and down the stream.  I also saw one in a farm field feeding on the carcass of a road killed deer. 

There is a really good place on Maryland to go to watch Bald Eagles during the migration periods, but it is so cool that I can see them as part of my day to day dalliances. 

Over the years I have seen many animals and birds in the wild that would not have been there except for the bipartisan efforts of our people and government.

We do not have to reap every penny available from the land- we can share our environment.

On a similiar, though opposite theme, an article about the possibility that we are currently in another mass extinction event and an example of how us causing a species to go extinct, in very recent times, has impacted us today.

"Ceballos pointed to the extinction of the passenger pigeon, which was the only species in its genus, as an example of how losing a genus can have a cascading effect on a wider ecosystem. The bird’s loss, a result of reckless hunting in the 19th century, narrowed human diets in eastern North America and allowed the bacteria-harboring White-footed mice that were among its prey to thrive.

What’s more, some scientists believe the passenger pigeon’s extinction, combined with other factors, is behind today’s rise of tick-borne diseases such as Lyme disease that plague humans and animals alike, according to the study.

Not only do the destructive actions of humans have the potential to erode our quality of life in the long term, but their ripple effects could eventually upend our success as a species, according to Ceballos."

https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/23/world/ma … index.html

https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/23/world/ma … index.html

Scientific American
JANUARY 1, 2024         21 MIN READ

Why Are Alaska’s Rivers Turning Orange?
Streams in Alaska are turning orange with iron and sulfuric acid. Scientists are trying to figure out why


https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti … ng-orange/

https://apnews.com/article/endangered-s … 610aa86d21

The Endangered Species act turns 50

Excepts:

"On Dec. 28, 1973, President Richard Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act. “Nothing,” he said, “is more priceless and more worthy of preservation than the rich array of animal life with which our country has been blessed.” The powerful new law charged the federal government with saving every endangered plant and animal in America and enjoyed nearly unanimous bipartisan support.

The Act was so sweeping that, in retrospect, it was bound to become controversial, especially since it allowed species to be listed as endangered without consideration for the economic consequences. In that way it pitted two American values against each other: the idea that Americans should preserve their incredible natural resources (the United States invented the national park, after all) and the notion that capitalism was king and private property inviolate.

The Endangered Species Act was just one in a raft of environmental legislation passed beginning in the mid-1960s that included the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Wilderness Act and the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. Taken together, it was the most extensive environmental legislation the world had ever seen.

It was a time of widespread support for cleaning up the environment after unchecked greed had polluted our air and water and wiped out some of our most iconic species. Added to the desire for a cleaner natural world was a belief that the federal government could solve our nation’s problems.

The United States’ own national animals, the bison and the bald eagle, had been driven to near extinction. When they started to recover, Americans saw the Endangered Species Act as a success. But when animals that people had never heard of began interfering with development, it was a different story."

The lack of a consideration for economic costs was the genius in the legislation.  We had, throughout history, been inclined to disregard, destroy, waste and annihilate anything and anyone that stood in the way of profits.  To allow ourselves to disregard an endangered species because of its lack of demonstrable importance would not have only impacted the species that few encountered, but it also would have hindered the recovery of national treasure species as the Bald Eagle and Bison,  Just as fear and economic considerations have hindered the recovery of wolves.  The economic benefit of building a dam or straightening a river and draining the swamps would have set aside concerns for any species in the way.  Many projects that alter the environment are projects where the issues that are unforeseen consequences are things we were still learning about in the 60s.  The consequences and cost of projects- such as the Kissimmee River in Florida and the disruption of Salmon in the west- would have constantly superseded the endangered.  Can we really imagine not building a billion dollar project because Bald Eagles nest nearby?  No.  The eagles would have been sacrificed just as they had been before. 

Let's face it, especially with the former guy, people who couldn't have ever experienced finding the first Hepatica bloom of the spring, and being on your knees to gently clear away a few dried leaves to see it clearly.  Or catching that tiny native brook trout and releasing it back into the stream.

I drive around the red lands and see signs that say "drill, drill, drill."  Do those people really consider the costs?