Thinking About Rooks……What Happened To America?......Sound Sense…..
by Bernie Bell - 09:03 on 21 February 2025
Thinking About Rooks……
Earlier this week, Mike was walking down the track to the Hall of Rendall, when he saw in the field to his left approximately 300 Rooks! There’s a Rookery at Woodwick – but not with so many in it, and a Rookery at Binscarth, again with not so many in it.
He didn’t get a photo, as he didn’t have a camera with him, and his Smartphone is elderly and not very Smart!
The next day, I was looking out our front window, when about 100 Rooks swooped low and slow over our garden – I went to get a camera, but they’d gone.
We were wondering …do groups from different Rookeries get together at this time of year, so that birds can pair up from out with their own group? We’re thinking of the old Country Fairs, where folk got together to trade, and also took the opportunity for people to pair up from different villages. They didn’t know about genetics but, from a knowledge of animal husbandry, they did know that things go wrong if pairs get together that are too closely related. The Aristocracy, with their greed for keeping land and wealth within families, ignored this at their peril!
The birds are definitely pairing up – Roookie has a partner with him – he allows her to sit next to him on the wire by ‘his’ telegraph pole and they share the bird table - having a meal together but not constantly checking their Smartphones while doing so!
Just some thoughts – do they join together in big groups to find partners? And if so, does the female leave her group to go with the male, or vice-versa?
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What happened to America?
America used to be the ’Good Guys’ – stepping in to help to end wars and liberate nations which were being subdued by Dictators ( I draw a veil over Vietnam).
Now – Trump is trumping non-sense about The Ukraine.
The Good Guys have become the Dictators.
Just getting that off my chest.
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Sound Sense…..
From …. https://www.facebook.com/Caroleeena
“How do we move past Doomerism when it comes to climate change?
- We can physically fix the planet. We have the technology and knowledge. Remember the hole in the ozone layer? We fixed that. The world came together to fix that using our technology and knowledge. We can rebuild coral reefs to make them more climate resilient. Scotland is now running almost entirely on renewable energy. We're only going to continue improving our abilities.
- As a species, we have the capacity to build a better world. We are not a doomed species that only causes suffering upon the Earth. Many indigenous cultures have lived in harmony with the Earth. We can and are learning from ancient wisdom and developing permaculture, reforesting, regenerative farming and more. It is our systems that are causing our social, ecological and climate crises, not humans as a species, and systems are always evolving and can be changed.
- Fear and despair alone are not going to drive us into action. Hope and revolutionary optimism are constant reminders that, through collective action, mutual aid and love, we can make big changes. They are the only things that ever have.
4. We have a moral obligation to use our power to make things better. We can do this in big ways and small. No one person has to fix everything. We can each do small things within our sphere of influence to make a big difference. Those of us with privilege, time and resources have a special obligation to do what we can. To those whom much is given, much is expected.
Whether it's planting a tree, learning to mend, learning to organize, sharing information about things like radical optimism to bolster hope, creating a library of things to share with neighbors so no one person has to have all the things, building a community garden or planting extra rows of food to share, joining a Buy Nothing group where we share instead of consume, using public transportation, eating plant based, learning about community organizing or attending a peaceful protest (the list goes on and on...) we can all perform tangible actions which will create short term and long term outcomes, which will, in turn, improve all of our lives through mutual aid, solidarity and community.
We've become too separated. Rugged individualism is a myth. Learn to ask for and accept help and also to give it. For those of us not struggling just to survive, we need to invest in building a better world. Be solution minded. Ask yourself, "What do I have to contribute?"
We are the heroes we've been waiting for.”
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