SOME GOOD NEWS, FOR A CHANGE

I have been focussing on the environment and its depradations by the Bush administration not just because it's a huge political issue, but because I love this beautiful blue/green planet ferociously.  Having abandoned the religion in which I was brought up (Catholicism), not having found any other organized actual religion to take its place, the only spirituality I find is in Nature.  And there I find so much that feeds my spirit, so much that IS spirit, IS soul.  Bobby Kennedy Jr., who is still a Catholic, talked in a taped speech I saw at our Sussex Cty for Kerry meeting on The Environment, spoke of environmental and ecolological issues in such a passionate manner, and he too brought up the spiritual dimension of these issues.  His book is supposed to be out this month, Crimes Against Nature, I remind myself to look for it.

So, when this administration passes legislation (for some examples, in case you've been off the planet for the past three years, check out the Sierra Club's W Watch.) without input from voters, without consulting environmental scientists, without putting it before Congress, legislation that results in the destruction of: air, water, land, mountains, forests, plants, animals, birds, fish, insects - my own soul feels ravaged.  All our souls, and those of generations to come, are ravaged by this action.  Our lives, our futures, are diminished and torn.  We will become less than human  - or, as some science fiction dreamers predict, MORE than human, something other than human, anyway - without this nexus into which we were born as humans.

Reading and writing so much about these crimes against nature has deeply saddened and exhausted me.  I've been avoiding entries having to do with my previous subjects, as you may have realized.  I have instead been immersing myself in nature - while I still can:  the rivers and hills in the Texas Hill Country, The Wildflower Center in Austin, walking the beaches here in Delaware, kayaking ponds and rivers.  In my own yard a family, or group, of wrens has come to stay a while - yesterday while I was in my sadly neglected garden picking basil and tomatoes one of the little brown darlings was singing its heart out from the top of a bush.  My heart rose with its song.

It is with great joy then, that I am able today to pass on a bit of GoodNews from nature, a bird that has been thought to be extinct for the past ten years has been sighted.  How wonderful is THAT?

"Extinct" Bird Rediscovered in Mexico
Scientists Thrilled By First Confirmed Sighting in Almost A Decade

July 9, 2004 (Washington, DC) – The Cozumel Thrasher (Toxostoma guttatum), a bird not seen or recorded by scientists for close to a decade and thought by some to have gone extinct, was sighted last month by a team of field biologists, American Bird Conservancy and Conservation International announced today. Its rediscovery immediately makes it the single most threatened bird in Mexico.

The Cozumel Thrasher, an endemic bird found only on the island of Cozumel off the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, appears to have experienced a precipitous decline in 1988 after Hurricane Gilbert tore through the island. It immediately became rare, but small numbers of the bird were known to exist until it was last sighted in 1995. That same year, Hurricane Roxanne ripped through Cozumel and may have also contributed to the species’ decline. Scientists estimate that as many as 10,000 once thrived on the island.

Previous recent expeditions to find the Cozumel Thrasher proved futile. Last month, a team of field biologists working in conjunction with Villanova University and the Mexican counterpart of the Island Endemics Institute, spotted a single individual, confirming that the species was not yet extinct. The field biologists were on a rediscovery mission sponsored by American Bird Conservancy and Conservation International.

"This is terrific news for the species," said Dr. George Wallace, vice president for

International Programs at American Bird Conservancy. "It opens a door to a range of possibilities that we hope will lead to the establishment of a protected area if more birds are found."

The Cozumel Thrasher is a medium-sized (23 cm. long) bird, similar to a mockingbird. It is brown and white with a long, curved bill. Its upper parts are a rich chestnut-brown with two white wing-bars. It has a gray face, black bill and legs, and white underparts heavily streaked black. Its song is described as a complex scratchy warbling.

"The rediscovery of the Cozumel Thrasher is a reminder of two key things: the importance of tropical islands for biodiversity conservation, and the importance of never giving up on a species - no matter how rare,” said Dr. Russell Mittermeier, president of Conservation International.

Although the hurricanes are believed to have had a major negative impact on the birds, scientists believe that other factors must have contributed to the decline, because the Cozumel Thrasher likely survived hurricanes for millennia. Introduced species, especially predatory boa constrictors introduced to the island in 1971 and now abundant, may also have had a disastrous effect.

Fortunately, large tracts of deciduous and semi-deciduous forest, thought to be the species' preferred habitat, still remain, and the birds are not hunted or trapped for the pet trade. Formal protection and management of Cozumel’s habitat could benefit other species on the island, including two other endemic bird species, fifteen endemic bird subspecies, and at least three endemic and threatened mammal species.

The team will next try to determine the size and range of the population represented by this single bird, and then return next January, when the birds are known to sing more frequently, to attempt further surveys. To protect this and potentially other birds from disturbance, the exact location of the discovery is not being disclosed to the public.

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American Bird Conservancy is a not-for-profit organization concerned with the conservation of wild birds and their habitats throughout the Americas.ABC is the only U.S.-based group dedicated solely to overcoming the greatest threats facing birds in the Western Hemisphere. For more information visit www.abcbirds.org.

Conservation International (CI) applies innovations in science, economics, policy and community participation to protect the Earth's richest regions of plant and animal diversity in the hotspots, major tropical wilderness areas and key marine ecosystems. With headquarters in Washington, D.C., CI works in more than 40 countries on four continents. For more information about CI, visit http://www.conservation.org

 

MORE INFORMATION: Contact abc@abcbirds.org or visit http://oikos.villanova.edu/cozumel

PHOTOS AND INTERVIEWS: Available to journalists by request.