Silver-studded Blue Butterfly (and ... )
31 May
The weather today is against walking - however, twelve years ago in this date we were “Out Walking” in Austria and happened upon this rather stunning little fellow taking an interest in a discarded feather. Silver-studded Blue (Plebejus argus).
Now the disturbing news …
Down in the US, the MAGA-minions propose dismantling and throwing out an almost century old series of scientific programmes fundamental to our knowledge of birds.
https://www.aba.org/proposed-bird-banding-lab-closure-endangers-bird-research/
The 2026 proposed federal budget includes cuts that would eliminate the Ecosystems Mission Area (EMA), which includes the Bird Banding Laboratory (BBL), housed under the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). If this closure comes to pass, there will be enormous repercussions for conservationists, wildlife researchers, and birders … If BBL is eliminated, no new banding permits will be issued and new data collection and access to existing data would be halted. It’s possible the existing database would be deleted, an immense potential loss of over 100 years of data … Less quantifiable, the loss of bird banding would be emotionally crushing for countless researchers and conservationists, for virtually all of whom bird banding is a calling rather than a job. Many people have dedicated their lives to this work.
That's very disturbing indeed! We just got back from a wonderful trip to the Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory, and saw 81 species over 2 days. It was the best birding trip we've ever experienced (with the exception of Costa Rica). The volunteers at the banding station are a special breed; passionate, dedicated, knowledgeable, young and old. I don't know how that even came up on the Maga radar! What a shame!
So much to know about the Silver studded Blue Butterfly. Thank you for the pic and drawing our attention to it. Here's a Wikipedia link if anyone is interested : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver-studded_blue
The terrible things that are going on here in the US are just that, Terrible! Terrible for everything. Terrible for all creatures. Terrible for our air, waters and lands. Certainly terrible for us humans, as well. One can only hope that enough humans wake-up to the fact that we can stop all of this with our voices and by picking up the phone, a pen or hitting our keyboards TODAY! Take a leap of faith and talk to anyone about what you are feeling, about what is happening in our country. No time to waste, do what you can, today. WE can stop this terrible madness.