@jeanne-mayell well it least it led you to helloveggie.co I am sorry the link didn't work .. you seem to have been able to find the one I posted by googling, which is a good thing! :-)
Try doing the same for the minimalist link, hand enter or google to locate. Making the milk is very very easy.
To all my bird feeding friends here, authorities are asking people not to feed birds or fill birdbaths due to an infectious bird disease that's making it's way up the east coast. Feeding birds is spreading the disease from grackles and bluejays to smaller song birds. They don't understand what is causing the disease but it is infectious and the die off is very concerning.
I can't post about a bird disease without mentioning the biggest cause of bird death ever -- outdoor cats. I love cats but when allowed to go outdoors, they are killing machines and are why the songbird population has dropped so steeply. ? Besides indoor cats are great! Just give 'em toys, catnip and access to your basement (mice).
@jeanne-mayell That's odd...the second link in journey's posts works fine for me. No matter, we have them both up now. :-)
With a heavy heart, I took down my bird feeders weeks ago when various agencies and the Audubon Society recommended it.The disease has now spread to 10 states. Today, I read and heard on the news that thousands of baby flamingos are dying because of the drying up of lakes which provides food. Between the birds, the fish kills in Florida, the hunting of wolves in Idaho, the death of over 800 manatee in Florida this year, and the overheated waters killing billions of sea creatures I am just heartbroken and I can’t stop thinking of these terrible things happening because of greedy and uncaring humans. This beautiful wonderful world the Creator gave us and what humans are doing to it makes me so sad.
Speaking of disheartening birds news, the record breaking heat in the west has cause a HAWKpocalypse. Baby birds of prey not old enough to fly have been jumping out of their nests to escape the heat. Landing helpless on the ground in some cases they are suffering injuries so serious they are euthanized. With more scorching temperatures coming for the northwestern United States and Canada starting this weekend, experts worry extreme weather fueled by climate change is set to take a growing toll on wildlife.
The creatures picked up by humans and delivered to rehabilitation centers are just “the tip of the iceberg,” said Bob Sallinger, director of conservation at Portland Audubon. He said the long-term effects are hard to predict but sees the recent spate of bird intakes as “data points” in a vast, still-unfolding and alarming story.
“I think these events really are wake-up calls,” he said, noting that birds in Oregon have already weathered intense wildfires and an ice storm in the past year. “That climate change is here, that the impacts are becoming more and more visible.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/07/17/heat-wave-baby-hawks/
We have something similar happening in Australia regarding Rainbow Lorikeets. They think it may be an introduced plant in the first article but arent sure.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/can-you-help-experts-figure-out-what-s-killing-rainbow-lorikeets-20210715-p589zf.html that has a paywall sorry
https://aboutregional.com.au/south-coast-birds-still-dying-but-disease-spread-slows/
I fear if I take down my bird feeder, the colony of cardinals who depend on it will suffer. They're acclimated to it. I think that's the case for many birds. It's an impossible choice.
@iridium When I moved up here to the Central Coast I started feeding the birds and I would get a lot of cockatoos, galahs and corellas coming in. One of my neighbours let me know that it was causing a problem with my other neighbours with the number of birds coming in especially the cockatoos who can be a bit destructive. So I had to stop doing it. The birds would come back for a few days but they soon learnt there was no food now and they stopped. They are still flying around in the distance but find their own food. I walk along the street and will see large groups of corellas feeding in the grasses. They adapted back to getting their own food.
I do still have a guilty secret in that a couple of lorikeets come around, they come to the kitchen window and chatter until they get my attention and I take them out some grapes. Its not every day sometimes a couple of months might go by before they come around. I do get them when they have offspring that wont shut up until they are fed. I think Mum is feeling desperate, give me some grapes so I can shut this kid up.
Now that I know about the problem along the South Coast with the disease happening there I am really torn about continuing with the grapes.
Best wishes with your decision regarding the Cardinals.
Kind Regards
Australia and NZ have such interesting birds!
I don't know if this is actually improving the plight of animals as such more like Cockatoos are doing it for themselves. They are teaching each other how to open wheelie bins. Either to get food scraps or to trash the joint. They are adapting to urban living in their own style. I like Cockies, a lot of people don't because they can be destructive, but I think they are wonderful.
Cockatoos in Australia Are Teaching Each Other How to Loot Trash Cans (sciencealert.com)
These are some reports on the endangered species Bilbies, they are creating fenced off areas free of feral cats and foxes to try and improve the numbers of Bilbies
http://savethebilbyfund.com/about-bilbies/
https://www.australianwildlife.org/wildlife/bilby/
https://www.bushheritage.org.au/species/bilby
https://www.australianwildlife.org/safeguarding-the-future-of-the-bilby-australias-easter-bunny/
the bottom article is the most informative
Regards to all
Cool crow news!
Scientists have discovered that crows are so smart, they can understand the concept of Zero.
https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/crows-make-another-intelligence-breakthrough-understanding-zero/
@lovendures I love this about crows. I also remember a segment in Nova that when elephants were presented with full length mirrors (full elephant length, that is), they stared at themselves then checked out their teeth and then turned around and looked at their rear ends.
That is amazing Jeanne! I love it!
Good news for coral!!
Say what?!? Good news for coral you say???
Yep!
Treating corals with a probiotic cocktail of beneficial bacteria increases survival after a bleaching event, according to new research. This approach could be administered in advance of a predicted heat wave to help corals recover from high sea temperatures.
@lovendures I loved this finding: Probiotic treatment improved the response and recovery of the corals after the heat stress event, boosting survival from 60 percent to 100 percent. Don’t think it can get better than that. lol
So much science is going on right now to bring the planet back into balance. When the political will hits record highs which I believe is coming, then the systems to rectify will be there waiting to spring into action.
If you want to read about a positive vision for our future, I recommend the book “Wilding” by Isabella Tree. She and her husband turned over their intensively cultivated farm in southern England to nature, and the results, within only 20 years, have been incredible.
It’s heartening to know that nature, if given the space, can regenerate so quickly on its own, or with pretty minimal human intervention.
There is a hopeful way forward. It’s waiting for us to embrace it in ways large and small.
Here is an interesting article about what caused the mass manatee die off, how organizations helped the survivors and what can be done to solve the problem. Things are not good right now but there is hope for the future. Lots of work is needed and money of course. Being designated an endangered species again might help too.
https://phys.org/news/2021-08-worst-die-off-manatees-starvation-florida.html