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From the World Wildlife Fund:
BREAKING NEWS: The presence of wintering monarch butterflies in Mexico’s forests this past winter was 35% greater than the previous year. This increase marks a sign of recovery—albeit a fragile one—for the eastern monarch butterfly population.Please continue to plant butterfly and bee friendly plants in your gardens! Never use pesticides every again! It’s working!
“Yesterday I witnessed something that took my breath away. I heard a sound at the window of the cottage. When I looked, a cedar waxwing had hit the window and fallen to the deck. It’s mate stood beside it. It was clear that the fallen bird was dead. I turned away for a moment and when I looked again, it’s mate had hopped over. It lay down beside its partner, their heads touching. It closed its eyes and passed over to Spirit with its mate.
The sadness and beauty of the moment was such a privilege to witness. If anyone has ever doubted that animals feel emotion and love, this moment was absolute proof of both. Nature truly has much to teach us.”
Aye Aye from Madagascar.
The aye-aye is an omnivore that eats seeds, fruit, nectar, mushrooms and insect larvae. It spends up to 80% of the night searching for food in the canopy.
Between 5 and 41% of the aye-aye’s foraging time is spent on a behavior called ‘percussive foraging‘.
This involves the aye-aye tapping rapidly at a tree trunk or a branch with its bony middle finger. As it taps it listens to the resultant echoes. From these is able to detect the hollow chambers created by wood-boring grubs within the tree
Like many lemurs, the aye-aye is rated ‘Endangered‘The most serious threats to the aye-aye include:
Habitat loss: Deforestation is the biggest threat to the aye-aye. Its forest habitat is shrinking due to the expansion of farmland and human settlements as well as the harvest of ebony and other valuable hardwoods.
Hunting: In many places in Madagascar, the aye-aye is persecuted because of superstitious beliefs about the animal.
In other areas, the species is hunted for food or as a crop-pest of coconuts and other cultivated plants.
A Himalayan Griffon Vulture, the second largest of the Old World Vultures, showing off its fake eyes.
Be careful while doing spring clean up in your yard. Hummingbird nests can be easily missed!!
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