Thursday, January 27, 2011

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(A-41) ENVIRONMENTAL TOXINS HARM OUR CHILDREN

Dear Mr. Morton- Living next to Lake Erie, I’m worried about all the toxins our children take in. We have beach closings due to filthy water and warnings about eating Lake Erie fish.- JP, Port Clinton, Ohio

Dear JP- The National Environmental Trust, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and the Learning Disabilities Association for America share your concern. Their research studies estimate that releases into our environment of toxins with detrimental developmental and neurological implications amounted to 24 billion pounds. I encourage parents to write their state and federal representatives, requesting a copy of the first ever, comprehensive look at the sources of such child-unfriendly pollutants- “Polluting Our Future: Chemical Pollution in the U.S. That Affects Child Development and Learning.”





R
esearch accumulates that demonstrates how toxic pollution affects the way that children’s bodies and brains develop. Roughly one out of six children in America (12 million) suffers from one or more developmental, learning, or behavioral disabilities like mental retardation, birth defects, autism, or attention deficit hyperactive disorder. The National Academy of Sciences released a study entitled “Polluting Our Future,” which conservatively concludes that 360,000 children in America, or one in 200, suffer from developmental or neurological disabilities directly caused by toxic exposures.

What can you do? Visit the Children’s Environmental Health Network Website. You can mail them a letter as well at: 110 Maryland Avenue NE, Suite 505, Washington DC, 20002 or call them by phone at 202-543-8797; email cehn@cehn.org They recently trained U.S. physicians in pediatric environmental medicine.

Want to know the environmental health hazards in your town and send faxes or letters straight to top-ranked polluters near you? Contact Scorecard at www.scorecard.org to view maps pinpointing potentially harmful chemicals being released in your neighborhood. Just type in your zip code; it’s quite eye opening.

Fortunately, the integration of brain sciences and environmental neuro-toxicology will prove the connection, but without public outcry, don’t expect much to be done.




Robert Morton, M.Ed., Ed.S. writes about the natural world. Do you have a Website, WebBlog, personal story or project, photos or articles to share on this site? Please contact us at the secure Bpath Mail Form. We'd enjoy hearing from you!

Saturday, January 22, 2011

(A-39) MYSTERY BABY HUMMINGBIRD NURTURED BACK TO GOOD HEALTH

Mystery Hummingbird. What kind is it??? The video below shows a young man who found a baby hummingbird after it was attacked. He nursed it back to health until it decided to stay and be his pet. Very charming video, and be sure to have your sound on. The song in the background is almost as good as the video itself.

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If anyone knows what kind of hummingbird this is, please contact us on the secure Bpath Mail Form. Indicate if it's OK to publish your name. Thanks in advance for the help. ENJOY!

Click HERE to watch the baby hummingbird video

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Robert Morton writes about the natural world and promotes making the 25,000,000 lawns in the U.S. to become wildlife-friendly spaces...ONE YARD AT A TIME. Read How This Site Came To Be. Have a photo, article or personal story about you or someone you know who is involved in creating a wildlife-friendly space? Share it on this site! Contact him at the secure Bpath Mail Form.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

(A-38) NATURE JOURNAL: CAVITY TREES PROVIDE "MINI-SANCTUARIES" TO WILDLIFE

Note: Scroll down the right margin to CODE "(A-38) CAVITY NESTERS" for free videos and free articles on this topic.
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Photo #1: A Black-capped Chickadee pair occupied this nest during the summer 2010. Photo taken 1/20/10 on Wolf Creek Park Nature Trail
Yesterday I hiked the Nature Trail at Wolf Creek Park in Sandusky Co., Ohio. I was amazed at the numbers of open notches, snags, cavities, large cracks and holes the trees contained. A few such “cavity trees” are useful to have in your wildlife-friendly yard. They offer mini-sanctuaries to many birds and mammals, especially during freezing weather. Any dead or dying tree will most likely have holes in the trunk or larger branches. They are also found in some healthy trees as well. Photo #2 shows a dead trunk with mucho space for birds and larger mammals, probably split open by lightening.

Photo #2: Along Wolf Creek Park Nature Trail
I’ve seen Red-breasted, Downey and Hairy Woodpeckers enlarge pre-existing cavities in trees, making cavity nests or simply mining for insects. At home, White-breasted Nuthatches cram sun flower seeds from my feeder into them. Squirrels store corn and nuts in them, which birds often steal. Note the enlarged hole in Photo #3, formed by the tree growing a protective covering around an old scar.

Photo #3: Wolf Creek Park Nature TrailAccording to the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, the birds and mammals that utilize tree cavities are of two groups. Primary cavity-users, such as woodpeckers, chickadees and the red-breasted nuthatch, make their own cavities. Secondary cavity-users are unable to excavate their own cavities. They rely on cavities excavated by other birds and on naturally occurring cavities.

Secondary cavity users include saw-whet owls, barred owls and kestrels. Common goldeneyes, wood ducks and other duck species are members of this group. Many songbirds, including eastern bluebirds, great-crested flycatchers and white-breasted nuthatches are secondary cavity users.

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Mammals also rely on cavities made by excavating birds. They include deer mice, martens, fishers, raccoons, porcupines, weasels and black bears.

As illustrated by the photos I took along the Wolf Creek Nature Trial, not all cavities are the same. The size, shape and location of cavities determine how wildlife species use them. You can tell by looking at the photos the cavities that are used as nests or dens, for escape or roosting cavities, or for feeding. In Photo #4 below, the hallow fallen trunks contained eaten acorns and other seeds. A Cottontail Rabbit scurried out from underneath the pile shortly after I took this picture. Look at the third standing tree from the left, by the Sandusky River bank. See what's peeking at me from behind it? The neck of a Canada Goose! It paddled out into the river when it sensed I recognized it.

Photo #4: Wolf Creek Nature Trail along Sandusky River

Photo #5: This trunk cavity had Walnuts and acorn shells below it. solar power contractors

Robert Morton, M.Ed., Ed.S. writes about the natural world and promotes converting America's 25,000,000 lawns into wildlife-friendly spaces...one lawn at a time! Do you have a Website, WebBlog, personal story or project, photos or articles to share on this site about how you created or protected a wildlife-friendly space? Please contact us at the secure Bpath Mail Form. We'd enjoy hearing from you!

Sunday, January 16, 2011

(A-37) ARE SHREWS KILLING BIRDS VISITING YOUR FEEDER?

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You may have a predator eating the birds at you backyard feeders...shrews. They live mostly on insects, but are ravenous creatures. Grasshoppers, wasps, crickets, snails and earthworms compose their main diet, but they also eat mice, small birds, snakes, nuts, berries, and slugs. Not surprisingly, they feed on seeds around bird feeders and can devour eggs in bird houses you placed in your yard. Once you get them in your yard, they will readily feast on the nectaring flowers you planted, along with fruits, vegetables and plant bulbs. Since they have a fast metabolism, shrews will generally feed every few hours and don't ever rest. They can consume their body weight 2 or more times every day.


Scott Shalaway, a biologist and writer, wrote this article about shrews killing birds at backyard bird feeders: If you find a clump of feathers on the snow beneath a bird feeder, suspect the work of a sharp-shinned or Cooper's hawk. But if just a few feathers lie beneath a feeder, a different predator may be responsible. Look among the sunflower seed shells for a one-inch hole in the ground.

Watch the hole for about 30 minutes and a small head may emerge. Grab your binoculars for a better look. If you see a pointed snout and beady little eyes, you've seen a shrew.


Small, mouse-like mammals, shrews are voracious insectivores that often kill prey larger than themselves. Pygmy shrews, the smallest mammal in North America, weigh 2 to 4 grams (about the weight of a dime) and eat more than twice their weight in food every day.
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Short-tailed shrews are abundant and widespread in the Eastern U.S. They inhabit both deciduous and coniferous forests as well as old fields, thickets and hay fields. Their only habitat requirement seems to be a thick layer of leaf litter that keeps the surface of the ground moist. The thick mat of sunflower hulls under feeders certainly qualifies.

No doubt the ground around the bird feeders makes an excellent place to hunt. There is always a supply of food. After digging its burrow, a shrew needs only to sit at its entrance and wait for an unsuspecting bird to hop by. 


Robert Morton, M.Ed., Ed.S believes urban sprawl can be offset by creating wildlife-friendly spaces in America's 25,000,000 lawns, one yard at a time! Click HERE to learn why. A portion of Ad sale revenues will be donated to Monarch Watch. Do you have a wildlife-friendly space? Please share it! Contact us on the secure Bpath Mail Form.

(A-36) BALD EAGLES & WINTER BIRDS SURVIVE

Note: Scroll down the right margin to CODE (A-36) Winter Birds" for free videos and free articles on this topic.

I received a call from my daughter in Oregon. She had drove south on I-5 to northern California and explored the Klamath Basin NWR and Tule Lake NWR. Excitedly, she recapped the story of seeing a dozen Bald Eagles in a single tree and several Golden Eagles soaring overhead. In December, the open water freezes and the waterfowl are forced to amass in shrinking water ways. A Pintail Duck flew overhead and a Bald Eagle attacked, knocked the bird into the water and almost nailed it. But the Pintail barely escaped the talons by darting to one side at the last moment. The event occurred directly overhead the birding group.


See all the audio CDs from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology

The group leader pointed out Tundra Swans, Harrier hawks and took them to a place where over a dozen Great Horned Owls sought cover in nearby cliffs.

Here in NW Ohio, I didn’t have quite the eventful birding adventure as my daughter, but it was peaceful and reassuring. I drove to Wolf Creek County Park in Sandusky County and hiked along its trails which hug the Sandusky River. The deep snow-ski tracks made my hike easier. Two adult Bald Eagles greeted me from a tall Cottonwood tree. Black-capped Chickadees, Blue Jays, Cardinals, White-breasted Nuthatches, a few Robins, Tree Sparrows, and Dark-eyed Juncos inspected me curiously inside the Walnut, Oak, Black Locust, and Maple woods.

Along the Wolf Creek footpaths, deer hoof prints were embedded in the packed snow-ski tracks (SCPD photo right). Two piles of feathers from what seemed to be a blackbird or crow lay in the snow along the path. No fox, coyote, cat, or dog tracks led to or from the kill site. Maybe a Great Horned Owl or hawk swooped down from above upon the unsuspecting bird.


As a boy, I was told that Great Horned Owls seek revenge at night upon crow roosts for the hazing the crows give them during the daylight hours. No, in nature no such intent exists...excuse the anthropomorphism. Human intent or cause and effect doesn't matter much in nature...at least one of her creatures earned a warm meal in the cold, frosty night.

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Robert Morton, M.Ed., Ed.S. writes about the natural world and promotes converting America's 25,000,000 lawns into wildlife-friendly spaces...one lawn at a time! Do you have a Website, WebBlog, personal story or project, photos or articles to share on this site about how you created or protected a wildlife-friendly space? Please contact us at the secure Bpath Mail Form. We'd enjoy hearing from you!