07/22/2026
“Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”
― Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species
All 11,000 species of birds on this world are descended from small avian dinosaurs that survived what can only be described as hell. 1 to 4 hours after the KT impact, billions of superheated glass spherules rained down through the atmosphere igniting global forest fires after heating the atmosphere to the temperature of a broiler oven. By the end of the first day, the surface of Earth was pitch black. Clouds of soot and vaporized sulfur blocked out the sun for 3 years. Photosynthesis stopped completely. The sulfur that rained out of the atmosphere caused the oceans to turn so acidic it dissolved the shells of marine organisms. The inland areas of large continents froze solid with global average temperatures plummeting by as much as 36 degrees Fahrenheit. Light gradually returned to the surface 3 to 10 years after the impact. The spike in atmospheric carbon dioxide triggered an intense warming period after the smoke cleared. And birds carried on. Every bird we will ever meet is a descendant of a comparatively few individuals who were the toughest motherf**kers to ever walk this planet. I will spend the rest of my life fighting for their right to live, and our privilege to share a world with them.
Osprey with Gizzard Shad?
July 22nd, 2026
Alachua County, Florida
