@QMS
Ours was good after we got home. Before that, a long day doing family stuff. Still, after we got home, sitting outside in the sun, with a cool wind blowing, listening to the birds... it was nice!

Thanks for stopping by!

.
The loons were very vociferous last night.
And the heron looked a bit hungover on the raft this AM.
But it's a beautiful day. Shame about the shot seals.

Thanks for the OT.

@Dawn's Meta
Your comment was really good. I didn't think about mentioning the recovery of so much after the wolves were allowed back into Yellowstone and could keep the deer and elk under some control. And other examples. I am so thankful you put these in the comment for us. Thank you!

I too am both sad and hopeful at the same time, which is weird. Driving home from my parents' today, they live in a small town where one of the seals was murdered, I noticed, once again, the absence of bugs on the windshield. It feels strange to want them to come back, but I sure do. The bugs' absence is a sign of how bad things have gotten, I think. Makes me sad. I'm ready for them to come back!

something I have thought about a lot.

I have seen Sea Lions lined up across Siletz Bay waiting for returning Salmon. And I have been up against the rocks in Barkley Sound, Vancouver Island, watching my good looking Salmon on a hook grabbed by a Sea Lion and taken to the rocks, tossed into the air much like a cat with a mouse.

There is a recurring theme with Wolves, wild horses, ironically, deer, and many other animals. When the system is out of balance, many species are seen as a problem and targeted. You are right, shooting them is not the answer.

The problem I have with all of this is the Bambi syndrome, where there are no natural predators and more deer are born and live than the environment can sustain. I have seen undernourished deer which are also too small giving birth to babies they can't raise. It is heartbreaking. They are not thriving and suffer.

One of the most successful recoveries is the example of Wolves returning to Yellowstone. The Elk and Deer are culled by Wolves and save the riparian zones of local rivers and streams leading to regreening, and dechanneling the rivers. Stream bank restoration is leading to return of many plants, insects, birds, reptiles, and mammals.

Lately, the reintroduction of Beavers is adding to the success of slowing river drainage and environmental improvement. The Elk and Deer are healthier and stronger. Their numbers are reduced and more in balance with their environment.

The removal of dams on many rivers: Hood River, Condit Dam on the White Salmon on the Columbia in Washington; Klamath system dams.

In France:
Dam removal in France

The striking thing to me is the speed of recovery if the return of migrating fish, like Salmon are considered success. Predictions often range from three to ten years for return of Salmon. Surpisingly, some return as soon as six months. As if they were just waiting for their river to be put right.

Health of the eco system is seemingly the key to rebalancing the various species.

While there is success with the examples here we also have the eternal fear of Wolves and the reintroduction of allowed hunting. The role of keystone animals is not understood or tolerated.

I wish for better.

And I wish for more contact with nature not less. Get into the woods, take a walk outdoors, feel the trees and rivers, and the salt spray.

I am sad and have hope at the same time.

Thank you Sima.

@enhydra lutris
are necessary, and have to be conserved and perhaps even expanded in places they have been destroyed. Go sea otters! Heh And 'restoration of ecosystem balance' is indeed the answer to all of this.

who attack marine mammals in dfense of this of that fish, crustacean or mollusk population. If the population they think they are protecting has declined due to predation, then the predator polulation will crash and the prey population will recover. Almost invariably, they are wrong about the cause of the decline. As DM pointed out, restoration of ecosystem balance is the best answer.

For example, a healthy and productive nearshore environment is enormously facilitated by Kelp forests. What fosters and protects kelp forests. Sea Otters. Yhey do take some mollusks, but if you want the mollusk population to boom yu need a seriously healthy kelp forest, which you will not have if sea urchins are not kept in check, and the number one predator of said urchins are otters.

be well and have a gooe one

@on the cusp
But, it makes sense, sadly. Hubby and I were talking about how ICE has started out attacking people with 'weird' names (hispanic, muslim...) but how they'll expand to people with normal names after everyone gets 'tired' of hearing about ICE. Very Nazi.

https://m3.gab.com/media_attachments/e5/22/ff/e522ff8604fc39eba383e4fa44...

@janis b
can be a huge dilemma at times, when it comes to nature. I always do this. If *I* or other humans, are the reason why a frog crossing a road might die (from being run over) then I 'save' it by moving it to the side of the road. However, if it's crossing a trail in the forest, it can stay. In other words, if a human or human made thing/process etc could kill it, I'll save it. Heck I even move spiders, moths, worms, caterpillars and so on, in the garden on my farm. If I'm walking down a path and I'll run into a spider web, I just carefully move it to the side, so the spider can reconstruct it quickly. I just try to be as gentle as possible. When coyotes would kill my goats, (not super often, but once in a while they would take an old goat), instead of shooting the coyotes, I worked to protect the goats better. Haven't had a coyote take one for years, although the coyotes are around the farm almost every night.

Anyway, thank you so much for stopping by and for the great comment. Enjoy the Puriri tree and the birds!

and for the thought and consideration it inspires. It presents a question I am eternally confronted with, even after all the years of consideration.

I used to stop if I was walking or driving, to move little creatures crossing the path or the road, thinking they were too vulnerable to misfortune to be there. When a respected friend and great nature lover said something I thought quite wise, it made me reconsider. He said, “How do you know that if you move the frog or turtle out of the way, you might not be putting them in danger from another kind of predator?”. I still always have that question in the back of my mind.

Here are some of my random thoughts about the predicament from over the years, which is still not fully resolved, but then how can anything be fully resolved?

There is an ancient Puriri tree that has been my constant companion and great pleasure for a very long time. It is majestic, and provides abundant nourishment and comfort for the endemic Tui and Kereru. What to do about the introduced Rosella and Myna birds who sometimes compete with the Tui and Kereru in the tree? My early reaction was wanting to make them go away, so I threw some small rocks hoping this foreign object passing in front of them would make them fly away, but no, they stood their ground. After a short time I realised that their presence didn’t really seem to make a difference to the number of Tui and Kereru who kept coming. Their greater predators are the possum and rat which eat their eggs, and which the council and locals work at eradicating. Shockingly the council still uses the toxic poison of 1080 in some ranges, but their practice now also uses more trapping to reduce the rats and possums, and stoats. NZ, being an island quite removed from most of the world has a lot invested in preserving its unique nature, whose practices I sometimes think are okay, and sometimes really question.

Plant life also presents a dilemma many times for me. I recently noticed a native vine that was starting to strangle a side of the ancient Puriri. What to do? I decided, because of the age of the tree and the generous offerings and pleasure it has given for hundreds of years, to ask my friend to see if he could locate the base of the vine and cut it, for the dignity of the tree. Because the vine trails along the ground great distances crawling up and around whatever it finds, the effort was only partly successful, so I'll let it go, and hope it works out in the best interest of survival.

Maybe if I live long enough I’ll know the right way? In the end, I think I just have to trust in a benevolent spirit that will guide the way between nature and man, as challenging as that is.

I wish you and your family well, Sima