Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’m more Christian than these people and I’m an atheist.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

This country desperately needs a functioning Fourth Estate.

with the Kraken taking a plea, the Cheese stands alone.

People are complicated. Love is not.

It looks like winning debates is a black job!

White supremacy is terrorism.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

It’s the corruption, stupid.

So many bastards, so little time.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Shut up, hissy kitty!

Republicans in disarray!

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

You are here: Home / Nature & Respite / Nature / Just What I Needed This Morning (Open Thread)

Just What I Needed This Morning (Open Thread)

by | 72 Comments

This post is in: ,

The beautiful post from Sister Golden Bear, filled with lights and beauty, was just what I needed this morning.  And so was this lovely note from Albatrossity, which arrived just as I had finished the post from Sister Golden Bear.

And I had to share it!

I literally have tears in my eyes as I type this; we just had a Hermit Thrush at the birdbath. It is the first one I’ve seen since the killing cold of Feb 2021. Lousy picture, but oh, the feeling of joy for Elizabeth and me is simply indescribable!

You will understand the joy if you take a minute to read the original post from Albatrossity from February 2021. ~WG

Albatrossity – From the Heart(land)

It’s sometimes hard to process our relationships with the natural world, and I was reminded of that, brutally, this week. The midsection of the continent has endured an intrusion of Arctic temperatures when the polar vortex weakened and then herniated. Here in my part of Flyover Country we had a week and a half of intermittent snow showers, steadily dropping temperatures, and cloud cover that eliminated our normal solar daytime heating cycle. We watched the thermometer as if it were an oracle, and it emitted increasingly ominous pronouncements.

All through the week the overnight lows crept ever lower, and the daytime highs never really lived up to that name. The birds in the neighborhood responded, as they usually do, by ramping up their feeding and foraging activities all week long. Seed-eating birds were happy to find the feeders, stocked with sunflower seeds and dried berries. Our five winter-resident woodpeckers gobbled down the suet. And the acres of buckbrush, cedar, and honeysuckle behind the house set the table for the frugivorous waxwings and thrushes.

We have a heated bird bath on the back deck that hosted ever-increasing flocks of robins and waxwings, as well as the occasional Hermit Thrush and Eastern Bluebird. Their honeysuckle-heavy diet was glaringly obvious, as piles of orange poo accumulated in rings around the water tub. We added a second water bowl; it immediately attracted customers and its own ring of poo.

Guest Post: Albatrossity – from the Heart(land)
Cedar Wawings (and one American Robin) mobbing the birdbath

For all the winters that we have lived in this house, we have had Hermit Thrushes as fellow travelers. We see them early in the morning at the bird bath, sporadically through the day, and at night occasionally spot one heading down below the deck, where we suspected it might be roosting in that relatively warmer microclimate. This year we had at least three, one with very dark breast spots and two with lighter spots. All three were frequent visitors at the bird bath, even scrapping with the much bigger robins for a space at the trough, as the week went on and the temperatures became more frightful. We hoped that they were getting enough to eat; we could provide water, but they were skeptical about the raisins and other dried fruit bits we put out for them. So the food they found on their own was the food they depended on.

Guest Post: Albatrossity – from the Heart(land) 1
Hermit thrush defending its space in the bird bath

The night of February 14-15 was the killer. On the deck our thermometer registered -14 F; the official temperature at the local airport about 4 miles away was -21 F. Dawn came, and I saw a couple of robins and one of the light-spotted Hermit Thrushes already at the bird bath, not drinking but simply warming up in that micro-space that was not -20. I was hopeful that they had made it through, and the forecast said that warmer temperatures were on the way.

But the day went on, and the numbers of robins dropped to 2 or 3 at a time (compared to 20 or 30 the day before), and no more Hermit Thrushes were to be seen. Same for the next day. They might have moved on (but to where?), and that is the story I kept telling myself.

Today, with outside temps in the mid-20s (double digits above zero!), Elizabeth investigated under the deck. The worst fears proved true. Huddled in dry leaves, against the side of the house, was a Hermit Thrush. It was the dark-spotted one, who had arrived in mid-November and cheered us nearly daily. Cold, stiff, and nearly weightless; it was feathers, skin, and bone but not much else.

Guest Post: Albatrossity – from the Heart(land) 2
Hermit Thrush, three days before the killing cold.

This killing weather doubtless took many birds, and this was just one. But it was personal, and I felt it more keenly because of that. But I also understood, at a level slightly removed from the gut-wrenching sight of that pitiful carcass, that our fellow travelers on this planet are paying a very high price because of us. Our usurpation of spaces and resources makes it ever more difficult for other species to find space and resources. Despite all we tried to do to help this creature, and others like it, we (all of us) killed it.

Most of us have precious few tangible, emotional connections to the world around us these days, even though we depend on that world. The planet that provides food, water, shelter, and space to our fellow travelers does the same for us, but we’d rather not think about it too much. We’d prefer to think that we are special. Moments like this, where that dependence is intellectually and emotionally in-your-face obvious, are increasingly rare, and perhaps that makes them increasingly painful. This hurt.

One bird. What difference does that make?

A world of difference.

 

Reader Interactions

72Comments

  1. 1.

    Alison Rose

    Dang, that story made me a little sniffly. But it’s so lovely that the new little buddy showed up!

    I love that photo with all the Cedar Waxwings. They’re one of my faves, and they do show up in my tree* but not super often, so it’s fun when I spot one. Someone once posted a pic of one in the ABA What’s That Bird group on FB, and I said that you can always tell the Cedar Waxwings because they’re the ones who go a little overboard with the liquid eyeliner.

    (*obviously it’s not actually mine, but I consider it such since it’s right outside my windows, the one really nice thing about this place)

  3. 3.

    rikyrah

    Manu Raju (@mkraju) posted at 10:46 AM on Tue, Dec 19, 2023:
    Schumer says Senate “will not leave town” until 11 military nominees blocked by Tuberville are confirmed. Tuberville had said he wants cloture and confirmation votes per nominee — meaning 22 votes (about 22 hours of votes). But he could concede and let them be confirmed quickly
    (https://x.com/mkraju/status/1737152540385366170?s=03)

  4. 4.

    rikyrah

    umichvoter 🏳️‍🌈 (@umichvoter) posted at 2:06 AM on Tue, Dec 19, 2023:
    “I want to show the Democratic Party as a young person that you need to earn our vote and if you don’t, the consequences will be your career” “A republican getting elected isn’t the end. It is the beginning of a much larger right”

     

     

    José (@josecanyousee) posted at 9:45 AM on Tue, Dec 19, 2023:
    MacKenzie isn’t happy with Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war. So, their solution is to give the worst person an opportunity to handle? The logic isn’t logicking.
    (https://x.com/josecanyousee/status/1737137198166876175?s=03)

  7. 7.

    Jess

    Heartbreaking but beautifully articulated. I would like to share this with my students down the road if that’s okay; I’m helping kickstart a sustainability studies program at my university. We have Hermit Thrushes here in central Mass, and I’m always entranced by their beautiful songs. I had never heard them before I moved here.

  13. 13.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Jess:

    @rikyrah: Should that last sentence of the quote be “the beginning of a much larger FIGHT”?

    It should be, and it is an accurate statement, just not in the way the poster thinks it is. They won’t be fighting for more progressive Democrats. They’ll be fighting to get an autocrat out of office and the right to have ANY say in the political process back.

  15. 15.

    SteveinPHX

    Albitrossity’s essay is beautiful, tender and brings home how cruel nature can be. Made my eyes mist up.

    Thanks WG.

    And I’m glad one is back. Back to my pick and shovel.

  17. 17.

    Geo Wilcox

    We planted a stand of eastern red cedars close together. Inside that “forest” the temperatures are well above 10 degrees warmer and all our birds hide there when it gets cold. We also have a stand of white  pine and Norway spruce that provides almost the same level of warmth plus TONS of breeding places.

  18. 18.

    Josie

    @rikyrah: ​ That first tweet is one of the dumbest things I have ever heard. I could want them to get their wish except for the fact that the rest of us would suffer along with them. Someone needs to tell that person some home truths, along with some historical context.​
     ETA: Loved that essay. Our yellow rumped warbler showed up for the third year in a row, bless his little heart.

  19. 19.

    Alison Rose

    If you want to see something too cute for words:

    A few months ago, midway through October, a Good Samaritan found a tiny, orphaned baby on the side of Stuart Highway, near Mataranka, Australia.

    The confused passerby grabbed the little animal and devotedly drove him to a wildlife carer nine hours away. Face to face with the fuzzy guy, the experienced carer had no idea what type of animal he was. She sent a photo to Kristie Argall, another expert from Wildcare Inc. NT. But Argall was equally stumped.

    “I was also puzzled by him,” Argall told The Dodo. “I had never seen a wallaby like this before.”

    Argall messaged a photo to the president of Wildcare Inc. to see if they might know. Soon, they had an answer. The wayward animal, now named Stuart Little, was a spectacled hare-wallaby — a rarity in the area.

    I WANT ONE.

  23. 23.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    Yesterday I called to reschedule a doctor appointment for today due to an emergency. I explained to them I made a point to call early to ensure it was at least 24 hours. They said if I were to cancel, I would be charged 300 dollars as their policy is 48 hours. I said fine, I’ll rearrange some things. I rearranged my whole day.

    A man called this morning, made clear he was the individual I spoke to yesterday, and informed me they had to cancel my appointment. I informed him I had a 12 hour cancellation policy and they owe me 300 dollars.

    He laughed. I was serious.

  33. 33.

    TeezySkeezy

    @rikyrah: I think the problem with these particular young voters is they don’t actually believe “it can happen here.” They probably think all the talk of fascist rhetoric and the dangers of Trump II is at best shrill alarmism from old people and at worst cynical lies to get their votes. They probably think they can just protest and “let their voices be heard” and they can push back on whatever the GOP throws at them. I do not think they understand the just how bad it could possibly get.

    Tangentially, I know many of you would defend the young voters as being more informed than most old people, and that may be true if you are comparing to MAGAts, but I would argue that even though the kids are exposed to much more information on social media (some of it even factual), they are lacking context.  Because of our fucked up educational system, many of them cannot contextualize what they are seeing and prioritize their response to it.  The proof of this is in the pudding: if they really understood what Trump and the Heritage Foundation are proposing, there would be no way they would sit out the election.  If they knew historical context, from WWII to Kissinger’s projects in South America or even what happened in Turkey, Hungary, Russia, etc over the last 20 years, they would be hair on fire scared too. No, instead, some of them are threatening to not vote for reasons such as… Biden’s student debt relief getting shot down by a *conservative* SCOTUS where 3 of the justices are *TRUMP* appointees. They don’t seem to understand who to blame.

    Some of the kids might be alright, but clearly not all of them are.

  35. 35.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @FelonyGovt: Hey, at least now I can spend some time here with the time I freed.

    @Mr. Bemused Senior: I wouldn’t expect such an invoice to be paid. Such is the nature of things when someone owns a thing and someone else doesn’t. Capitalism.

  37. 37.

    lowtechcyclist

    @FelonyGovt:

    Today is my 70th birthday. How the heck did that happen?

    You kept breathing for 70 years? ;-)

    I hear you, I turn 70 in March, and all I can think is, “good thing it’s happening while I’m still so young.”  My favorite cousin turns 70 on Christmas Eve, five days from now.  My older sister turned 70 in April.  My two best friends from high school turn 70 in April and May.

    The prospect of turning 70 doesn’t bother me much.  It’s the key events in my life that happened in years like 1970 that didn’t used to be all that long ago, but they sure are now.

  42. 42.

    NotMax

    Trying out an Italian Nero Wolfe series on MHz Choice. Too early into it to pass judgment. Italian detective series tend heavily towards the chauvinistic; fingers crossed this one tones that down.

  43. 43.

    Maxim

    This morning, I received news of a friend’s passing. Just one person, not important at all in the global scale of things. One person among the billions who inhabit this planet. But I feel the loss keenly.

    David’s essay is especially poignant to me in that light, and so I am thankful for the return of the Hermit Thrush, and for the baby wallaby, and for all the other little moments of light that help balance out the pain.

  48. 48.

    rikyrah

    @TeezySkeezy:

    I think the problem with these particular young voters is they don’t actually believe “it can happen here.” They probably think all the talk of fascist rhetoric and the dangers of Trump II is at best shrill alarmism from old people and at worst cynical lies to get their votes. They probably think they can just protest and “let their voices be heard” and they can push back on whatever the GOP throws at them. I do not think they understand the just how bad it could possibly get.

     

    They could possibly have an excuse, IF 1/6 hadn’t happened.

    What the phuck do they think 1/6 WAS?

  51. 51.

    ArchTeryx

    As an amateur ornithologist, I will say that most of these small birds have an average life of 2-3 years, and cold weather is especially deadly for them. It has to do with cold, cruel physics. The surface-to-volume ratio of small birds is MUCH higher than the surface-to-volume ratio of larger ones. Why does that matter? The more surface, the more heat you lose. The less volume, the less heat you can store. So they have to generate it continuously, and a little thing like a Hermit Thrush can run through their entire internal store of food and energy in a single night. He might have had a healthy amount of stores at the start of the night, but ran through them all and froze to death before the dawn came. That’s why the poor thing looked so emaciated. And why the original meaning of “to starve” was “to freeze to death.”

    Heated birdbaths are one possible answer; that warm water can save many lives. So can having thick trees around like conifers; those provide shelter from the wind, by far the deadliest part of the cold (for everyone). But cold snaps kill many small birds even if we were never around; it’s a sad, heartbreaking part of the cycle of life on this planet.

  53. 53.

    Martin

    @rikyrah: What other consequence can they threaten? How else do voters tell elected officials what they should be supporting if not that way?

    Note, threatening something is not the same as doing something.

  54. 54.

    Martin

    @TeezySkeezy:

    I think the problem with these particular young voters is they don’t actually believe “it can happen here.” They probably think all the talk of fascist rhetoric and the dangers of Trump II is at best shrill alarmism from old people and at worst cynical lies to get their votes. They probably think they can just protest and “let their voices be heard” and they can push back on whatever the GOP throws at them. I do not think they understand the just how bad it could possibly get.

    Tangentially, I know many of you would defend the young voters as being more informed than most old people, and that may be true if you are comparing to MAGAts, but I would argue that even though the kids are exposed to much more information on social media (some of it even factual), they are lacking context.  Because of our fucked up educational system, many of them cannot contextualize what they are seeing and prioritize their response to it.

    No, I think they fully understand what it means. If anything I’d argue young people understand it better because they would characterize the current state of the US as being farther along than most of us do.

    But you freaking out over the prospect of them withholding their vote has the effect they seek. Why aren’t more democrats speaking out against this policy. Why are so many Democratic donors in the tank for Israel? They want you and I to elevate the issue, because nobody gives a shit what they think – you think they’re idiots.

    All politics is hostage taking now. Thank the GOP for introducing that dynamic. But there’s a difference between taking a hostage and killing the hostage.

  56. 56.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Martin: What other consequence can they threaten?

    It’s not even the election year yet. Run and be that better version of a Democrat or even/especially Republican.

  58. 58.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Chief Oshkosh: Note to self, learn what Press Ganey score is

    ETA: Why, yes, I store all my personal notes on Balloon Juice. Helps preserve my chain of thought well, but my browser tabs are hell.

  61. 61.

    Brachiator

    @TeezySkeezy:

    Tangentially, I know many of you would defend the young voters as being more informed than most old people, and that may be true if you are comparing to MAGAts, but I would argue that even though the kids are exposed to much more information on social media (some of it even factual), they are lacking context.

    Young people don’t vote. Exit poll data about the 2022 elections from Tufts University

    National Youth Turnout: 23% – That’s lower than in the historic 2018 cycle (28%) which broke records for turnout, but much higher than in 2014, when only 13% of youth voted.

    I ran across a video clip of a college Sociology class lecture where one student noted that she had not heard about the situation in Gaza for two weeks because her social media feeds mainly consists of fun content.

    I was a teen and young adult in the late 60s and early 70s, and very much aware of the civil rights movement and the opposition to the Vietnam War. I’m pretty sure that I registered to vote as soon as I was eligible to do so. But most of my contemporaries were focused on just having fun and living their lives. And I wasn’t marching in the streets either.

    Because of our fucked up educational system, many of them cannot contextualize what they are seeing and prioritize their response to it.

    I remember some high school teachers trying to get me and my fellow students engaged politically. Some responded. Some didn’t.

    In 1969 or 1970 I went door to door passing out campaign literature for Julian Nava, the first Mexican American to serve on the board of the Los Angeles Board of Education.

    Baby steps.

  63. 63.

    artem1s

    Young people don’t vote.

    And no amount of holding their breath until they turn blue and die will get them to do otherwise.
    Same as it ever was.

  64. 64.

    TeezySkeezy

    @Martin: I dont think they are idiots, but they are not playing 11 dimensional chess either. They are just very fucking mistaken, and ignorant, which is, as I said, on us for not educating them properly.  And you know what, I am at least respecting them enough to ascribe agency to them when i criticize them. Not gonna say they should take over while making excuses for their bad decisions.

  65. 65.

    way2blue

    Well Albatrossity, that’s definitely welcome news though Mr Hermit looks to be saying ‘what’s the big deal…  ‘.

    I heard a story last week from a handyman who takes care of local homes.  He said, when it got really cold last year, he put out a heating pad for the chickens to warm themselves during the night.  One of those that’s just a bit warm.  Anyway, the next morning there were a batch of eggs on the heating pad…

  66. 66.

    Dmbeaster

    Love Hermit Thrushes.  Here in California, I only see or hear them in the Sierras.  I also heard one climbing Wilson Mountain in Sedona, AZ.  And I rarely see them, as out here they are very secretive and wary.  When I stop and look to spot them, they stop singing.

    Sound engineers in the entertainment industry must love this bird, as they use its song constantly in scenes in the woods with birds chirping.  Once you know their song, you can detect it as a common background sound in movies or TV.

  67. 67.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Brachiator: In 1972, when the voting age was lowered to 18, most 18-to-21-year-old youth favored McGovern but Nixon led among those who were actually registered to vote. And Nixon won a plurality of them. And the turnout wasn’t great. People had predicted this liberal groundswell but it didn’t really materialize.

    I think part of the problem is that many people at that age are going off to college or otherwise moving away from home, and there’s active vote suppression going on aimed at making it harder for such people to vote (e.g. by establishing stringent requirements for residency and making scary threats of prosecution for “vote fraud” if they step over the line). If these young people’s attachment to voting is weak in the first place, they’re not going to jump through extra hoops to do it. And if they don’t vote it establishes a habit of non-voting.

  70. 70.

    Albatrossity

    @Dmbeaster: Not just movies. I don’t watch golf on TV often, but once I was at a friend’s house and he had some West Coast golf tournament on the TV, Apparently it didn’t sound bucolic enough for the sound engineers, so they had a soundtrack that included lots of East Coast birds (e.g Carolina Wren, Cardinal, White-throated Sparrow). Any of those birds on the West Coast would incite a herd of birders heading out to look for it!

    And the California Quail calls in the old TV series “Dallas” were pretty hilarious  too!

  71. 71.

    Martin

    @TeezySkeezy: What decision? You realize the election isn’t until next year, right?

    Right now they’re just protesting. And what makes you think they’re going to follow through? I’m old enough to remember when every Clinton supporter here was going to refuse to vote for Obama and throw the election to McCain. Yeah, we saw how that turned out.

    The election isn’t real yet. It won’t be real for another 10 months. Calm down. Let people vent their frustrations.

  72. 72.

    captain toast

    Thanks for this. It’s nice to know we aren’t the only ones who truly care for our little cousins who are just trying to get by in the cold. A little food and warm water seems a small price to pay to make their burdens less.

Comments are closed.