Why Mess with Nature?
People often ask me why we rehabilitate wild birds. Some believe rehabilitators interfere with nature, and that it’s natural for a bird to sustain an injury or become ill. I agree that illness, injuries and death are all a part of nature. But I don’t feel there is anything natural about a wild bird being…
Silent Spring: Salmonella in Songbirds
I finally heard red-winged blackbirds trilling away earlier this week. Patches of brown grass are surfacing through melted snow. And my dirt road is a slippery mud pit, cratered with brutal potholes and riveted with tire marks deep enough to sway the intended direction of your car. There’s no doubt about it: Spring is here…
So, Who Cooks For You?
Imagine a Vermont spring night, the sky a velvety black save for the sparkle of a thousand stars. The wood frogs bark to their loves from the marsh while an opossum casually rambles through the thicket. The lull of the evening is broken by the low, resounding call of someone with a question. “Who cooks…
Waterfowl Superhero
Wikipedia states that a superhero is a character with “extraordinary powers and abilities, relevant skills, and/or advanced equipment.” Meet the hooded merganser: waterfowl superhero. A diving waterfowl, the hooded merganser plunges deep into rivers and lakes, using his extraordinary ability of altering his vision to better see his underwater prey of fish, crayfish and the…
