Flight Paths by Rebecca Heisman

 

 Subtitled (in the UK version, which has a different cover to the above) 'How the mystery of bird migration was solved' this is a fascinating look into the science of migration. 

The book looks at human curiosity about bird migration, going right back to the times when people thought that summer visitors spent the winter in the bottom of ponds or that they flew to the moon. It then follows the development of technologies that have helped scientists to track migrating birds - from recording the calls of birds that are migrating at night to fitting birds with radio transmitters to genetic research and taking in meteorology and radar. The author spends time with field researchers to get first hand experience of some of the vital work that goes on to investigate the (often long) journeys made by (often tiny) birds and also investigates the world of citizen science where ordinary people are encouraged to participate in research.

Research is not just useful for discovering the routes taken by migrating birds but also sheds light on how climate change may be affecting migration routes and has significant results for conservation. Science has been able to shed light on issues such as how the quality of habitats affects the pattern of migration of certain species (birds living in better quality habitat being able to eat more and be in better shape when preparing for migration) which can lead to more informed conservation of birds and the habitats they rely on. Research using satellite tagging is enabling scientists to help to save the endangered Spoon Billed Sandpiper, a small shore bird with a distinctive shaped beak.

The author also looks at ways in which ordinary people can help migrating birds, whether by switching off lights on key nights for bird migration through cities (to avoid disoriented birds from crashing into windows). 

The book may be, in general, too science based for some readers, but is full of human interest stories such as the Dutch scientist Theunis Piersma, who rewrote his 2012 scientific paper 'Solving a Migration Riddle' as a book in Frisian, the minority language of his village, where the House Martins who he was studying actually nested. The book 'Guests of Summer: A House Martin Love Story' has since been published in Dutch and English. 

I definitely recommend this book for anyone with a keen interest in bird migration, particularly if you have a scientific background. 

Flight Paths by Rebecca Heisman, published (2023) by Swift Press.

You can read an article by the author about the writing of this book on the BTO website here.

Cherry Blossom at Lauriston Castle

 There are a number of seasonal things we try to do every year. One of them is to visit Lauriston Castle to see the cherry blossoms in the Japanese Garden. So that's where we went on Saturday. Unbeknownst to us, Saturday was actually am official Japan Sakura Cherry Blossom event at the castle, so it was a lot busier than usual! Even so, we managed to get a lot of lovely photos, most of which didn't have too many people in them! 

Outside  the Japanese Garden, the grounds of Lauriston Castle are also beautiful, with several azalea and rhododendron bushes in bloom at the moment 

There's also a lovely wooded walk round the perimeter of the castle grounds 

and views over to the Firth of Forth 

There were a good number of birds around including a pair of Bullfinches that seemed very happy to spend time close by, though only the male is in the photo below 

The Green Woodpecker was being much more elusive and though we could hear it laughing away in the trees, we couldn't see it at all.

A Funeral in Worsley

I've not been posting much recently as my Dad died, and we were down in Manchester for his funeral. It was a nice funeral and very well attended. It was nice to catch up with a few friends and family members and to walk round the area near where I grew up. We walked along the Bridgewater Canal from Monton (where we were staying in a small hotel opposite the famous Monton lighthouse, which is really a folly, see photo below)

 

 to Worsley Village. 

The Mock Tudor building in the photos is Worsley Packet House where passenger boats used to depart to Manchester. Also seen in the photo below, alongside the Alphabet Bridge - children were encouraged to recite their alphabet as they crossed this bridge to go to school.

Nearby is the Nail Maker's House, the oldest house in the village

Worsley Delph is the start of 46 miles of tunnels that lead to a network of underground coal mines. The sculpture in the photo below is a modern artistic reimagining of one of the original cranes that stood on the site. 

Worsley Green was once a hive of industry, but now looks like a traditional village green. It is surrounded by mock Tudor houses that were built for the workers. 

 

In the middle stands a monument that was originally part of a chimney stack from one of the original factories. 

We also walked around Worsley Woods.

Invisible Nature by Kenneth Worthy

 

In this book, Kenneth Worthy offers a new understanding of the precarious modern human-nature relationship. 

All the luxuries of the modern world tend to blind us to our disconnections from nature and from the consequences our actions have for the natural world. Our personal and professional choices damage nature, from radioactive landscapes to disappearing rainforests, but we are too separated from nature to see this. This book traces the broken pathways between consumers and the production of most things we rely on, from food to smartphones, which often rely on the work of poorly paid people who we will never meet in countries we will never visit.

Worthy has spent time in Bali, where he notices that people are still connected to nature and to each other in traditional ways that have been lost in most societies, including the USA and UK. He also compares his own life to his ancestor Charles who settled in Canada in the seventeenth century and lived a life much closer to nature than the author is able to do himself. 

I really enjoyed the early parts of this book. Worthy takes a psychological approach to the issues, questioning how we can maintain a good relationship with nature when we spend so much of our time in abstract pursuits and are increasingly restricting our time to the human shaped world. Nature has, for many people, become a distant background to their lives. Even those of us who spend a lot of time in nature, these days need to make a conscious decision to engage with nature, much more so than our ancestors who lived more natural lives. He also looks at how people can be persuaded to destroy nature, through distancing them from the ultimate effects of their actions (decisions to destroy rainforests are made by people in front of computers at desks far removed from the forests themselves) or by offering no benign alternative (buying bottled water rather than drinking tap water is forced on people in countries where tap water is not drinkable.) 

The solutions put forward in the book are, however, less satisfying, ranging from a number of approaches that feel as though they have been discussed many times already with little effect to hippy sounding ideas like developing a more mindful way of relating to everyday objects.

Overall though this is a fascinating, thought provoking book about the disconnection between humans and nature, well recommended.

Invisible Nature by Kenneth Worthy, published (2013) by Prometheus Books.

Rainy Spring Haiku

even
in the pouring rain -
skylarksong

** 

originally published on Haiku Girl Summer.  

**

I'm delighted to have a haiku included in this year's Golden Haiku, on display in Washington DC. You can read all the haiku here. 

I'm also happy to have a senryu in issue 42 of Prune Juice. You can read the whole issue here.