Naturalists ruin everything - what have you ruined for your friends?

Could tell they’re doing that on purpose! :face_with_spiral_eyes:

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(Post deleted by author)

It was about the Hymn “Morning Has Broken,” but I thought better of it, because I like that hymn. The ensuing replies should provide enough hints about what was said.

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tbh I’m not really educated on new world invasive plant species. :sweat_smile:
But one really annoying invasive plant species that I do know about; its Japanese knotweed.

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That is a beautiful hymn! As a creationist, my views differ from yours, but nontheless I respect your opinion :smile:

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It’s a lovely song, no matter what your perspective. I’ve always heard it as an expression of that moment when the sun first peeks over the horizon, and the new day is full of possibilities.

(Of course, far too often I see that moment because I haven’t been to bed yet – as Tara said in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “seeing sunrise from the wrong side”. But that’s a whole 'nother problem. :laughing:)

On topic: I probably ruined nature altogether for my cousin …by chasing him around with worms, live mice, frogs, and the occasional crawdad. For someone who was ‘all boy’, he sure did squick easily. :stuck_out_tongue:

In fairness, though, I’m willing to admit that part of his reaction might’ve been from having the bookworm turn the tables on him. (He was always annoyed that I could climb the tree in our Mamaw’s backyard higher and faster than him, usually with a book in hand, too.)

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Soooo, you all have friends who aren’t naturalists? What’s that like?

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What??? Stop being so fictional.

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Lopsided at best.

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Don’t want to give him clicks on inaccurate info - could I get a summary of what’s wrong with these?

Ok, this is just being pedantic. I know we all love correcting here but I don’t go around saying “Oh, the Beatles are so inaccurate-- that’s a human, not a walrus!” Also, could they mean blackbirds as in the first to sing each morning? Don’t follow birdsong super closely but who knows, perhaps they’re early risers?

Don’t worry about adding to his views, he’s only got about 10 or 20 thousand views for each vid, hardly gone viral
But to summarize, he jumps to some eye-watering conclusions in trying to raise awareness on critical conservation topics, like trying to suggest that Elephants play a key role in maintaining the viridity of afrotemperate forests in the Garden Route of South Africa (False), and in the last video, he gives the spotlight to a highly controversial figure in Southern African wildlife management who claims that the Elephant population is killing the indigenous vegetation in Kruger but can’t even get his fundamentals of botany right

That sort of stuff

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Having several family members that raise honeybees ( including my father) I have to watch myself around them they get really butt hurt when I mention their and invasive species and they create competition and spread decease for native pollinators and help pollinate other invasive species. I usual avoid the subject altogether until I hear one going on a tirade about how they are helping the environment.

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I found this out the other day by accident. Really cool!! I thought it was amazing got my wife to ride with me on a golf cart at night and I shinned the spot light on the ground as we drove down some trails. She was not happy with how many spiders were wondering around that she wasn’t aware of. We were laying in bed that night and I felt her shutter. I rolled over an said your thinking about it aren’t you. She said yes!

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I don’t quite remember all the lyrics of that song, but I hear those lyrics more as the dawn of consciousness on an individual level. Say, as an example, as a small child, the first time remembering being specifically aware of birds, etc.

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Well, that makes sense.

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Around here, the Northern Cardinal is almost always the first songster at dawn, or even pre-dawn, followed by titmouse, chickadees, and others. Blackbirds of various kinds, usually Red-winged Blackbirds though around here, are late risers.

But that’s just here.

I’ve always figured the hymn was using poetic license to make the words flow more smoothly. I still love it though.

And I figure local bird populations always contain a variety of birds, some of which just have to be the first bird each dawn. ;)

We’re absolutely infested with Northern Cardinal at the moment so it’s no surprise those birds are the first to sing here.

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I’m pretty sure given the singer’s nationality that the blackbird in the song is Turdus merula. They are up very early. I remember growing up in northern Germany and having a sort-of love-hate relationship with the bird in the tree outside my bedroom window waking me up at like 4 AM during summer break. Their song is nice but at that time teenager-me really wanted to be asleep. Over here in the US, often the first ones I hear on spring/summer mornings are the robins - Turdus migratorius. Coincidence, or are all Turdus early risers? (Funnily enough, neither the American and Eurasian blackbirds, nor the American and Eurasian robins are closely related to each other.)

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Not sure about all, but every Turdus I met sing through the night, they need a little to sleep, so they don’t waste time and sing or scream (as fieldfares) from dusk to dawn, for birders 4 a.m. is a hot hour after 8 a.m. most birds stop singing.

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All true, and sometimes I think that when the song is being sung, but I like that song anyway. It’s one of the few cases where I’ll forgive the inaccuracy.

I think this issue with non fossil fuels is one of scale.

For decades Hydro-power was considered the gold standard in “clean”. Of course solar, wind etc have also come in now.

But anything beyond a certain scale, and I venture to say a local scale, tends to become environmentally ugly.

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