Unusual avian activity – More promising news about the virus – Military coup in Burkina Faso – Evening statistics
Since I had appointments in the morning and could not complete them before 11:30, I did not wish to travel far to hike and so I fell back on the old standby, the circuit around Burke Lake and Lake Mercer. Towards the end of the hike I saw an extraordinary amount of raptors, including a bald eagle and half-a-dozen herons all searching for prey within a few yards of each other. Normally I see herons only one at a time, unless I row past Vesper Island during their nesting season. But on this occasion they were all together – the first time I’ve seen them in such a formation. A passerby told me, in addition, that this is the first sighting of a bald eagle on the lake in two years. There were a couple of bald eagle nests among the treetops along the lake shore in earlier years, but they had been abandoned. The weather was warmer today than it has been for many days, well above freezing; but both lakes still retained a thin coating of ice. In some isolated areas the ice had broken, and it was along one of these that the herons were lined, which may be an explanation of why they were so close to one another; they were in one of the few places where they could dive for fish below the surface. Numerous other birds were in evidence as well: blue jays, cardinals, chickadees, and pileated woodpeckers, among others.
The alpha and beta variants are all but extinct at this point and the delta variant now accounts only for about 0.5% of the COVID cases since January 15th. At least 99% of the cases that have recently emerged of the omicron variant – which is fortunate, for the omicron variant is far less severe than the others. In the U.S., cases have crested and are dropping rapidly, following a pattern seen in Britain and South Africa. Although U.S. deaths are still rising (over 2,000 per day until fairly recently), new hospital admissions have started to fall and a drop in deaths is expected to follow.
There has been yet another military takeover of a government, this one in Burkina Faso. Capt. Sidsore Kaber Ouedraogo, spokesman for the so-called Patriotic Movement for Safeguarding and Restoration, said that it “has decided to assume its responsibilities before history.” The junta has cited the deteriorating security situation amid the deepening Islamic insurgency and the president’s inability to manage the crisis. At this point the whereabouts of President Roch Marc Christian Kabore are unknown. Presumably he is detained somewhere, but nothing has been verified. In general, as far as it is possible to tell from the very limited amount of evidence available, the takeover appears to have popular approval. The Islamic insurgency has thwarted all attempts to stabilize the country’s economy. Health services have become inaccessible to many and tourism, a major source of income, has naturally lessened since many other countries are issuing warnings against unnecessary travel to the area. Attacks linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group have been steadily escalating, killing thousands and displacing more than an estimated 1.5 million people.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 354,771,406; # of deaths worldwide: 5,621,995; # of cases U.S.: 72,913,166; # of deaths; U.S.: 891,544.