hoatzin

Reality-based, married, retired health care worker, birder, amateur naturalist, night sky enthusiast, admirer of world-wide journalistic courage and integrity.

[hoatzin @hoatzin]

@natural77384672 As a child, growing up in northern Ontario, Canada, my father would alert us as soon as he heard the drumming.

[hoatzin @hoatzin]

@word0taku nonplussed.

[hoatzin @hoatzin]

@accuweather Devastating. Fond memories of having lived there for many years.

[hoatzin @hoatzin]

@Mind_Pulse_X Walnuts.

[Sen. Bernie Sanders @SenSanders]

At a time when the U.S. faces the highest rate of child poverty of any major country, how does Mr. Trump respond?

Instead of expanding access to early childhood education, he is moving to dismantle Head Start and the standards that keep its 700,000 kids safe.

How cruel.

[hoatzin @hoatzin]

@WeatherMonitors Horrifying.

[hoatzin @hoatzin]

@DrGregLittle2 Privileged to have visited twice years ago.

[hoatzin @hoatzin]

@Oldtimers365 Algeria.

[hoatzin @hoatzin]

@Matt_Pinner 18; and today I'm again enjoying listening to my vinyl record of The Beatles' "Abbey Road".

[hoatzin @hoatzin]

@oelma__ 18; and I still drive a stick-shift.

[hoatzin @hoatzin]

@penguinusa @PenguinClassics The Snow Leopard.

[hoatzin @hoatzin]

@Mind_Pulse_X A thimble.

[hoatzin @hoatzin]

@80s_channel My favorite decade.

[hoatzin @hoatzin]

@Mind_Pulse_X Nail clipper.

[hoatzin @hoatzin]

@ThinkNGuess Corn cobs.

[hoatzin @hoatzin]

@UFWupdates We are appreciative of your hard work in difficult circumstances.

[hoatzin @hoatzin]

@Mind_Pulse_X Pencil sharpener.

[hoatzin @hoatzin]

@natural77384672 Nature continues to amaze.

[Give A Shit About Nature @giveashitnature]

150 years ago, if you'd have hiked through the forests of the southeastern United States, you may have seen parrots flying overhead.

Carolina parakeets were the only parrots native to eastern North America. They had a green body, yellow head, orange face, and flew in noisy flocks across the southeastern US.

They ate the fruit and loved the orchards farmers planted. The farmers didn't love them back and shot them by the thousands.

They had a fatal social instinct: when one was shot, the rest of the flock circled back to "mourn" the dead bird, where they could be shot too. Entire flocks could be killed off in single afternoons.

In 1885, the Cincinnati Zoo bought 16 of them for $40, hoping to breed enough to save the species. The captive breeding program on Earth didn't work, and by 1917, only two were left: a male called Incas and his mate of 32 years, Lady Jane.

She died in late summer 1917. The zookeepers said Incas became "listless and mournful" and stopped eating. On February 21, 1918, Incas was found dead in the morning after a cold night.

It really makes you wonder what the woods would sound like if their flocks still flew overhead.