As a blizzard pounds the mid-Atlantic states, I have 21 inches of snow, and it hasn’t let up yet, but here’s my picks for best of the web this week. Stay warm!
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The Great Backyard Bird Count is just around the corner, next weekend in fact. This is a fun way to get your kids into nature and birding. So mark Friday, February 12th through Monday February 15th on your calendar now. You can choose to participate in just one day or for every day of the count. And the best part is, each checklist submitted by these “citizen scientists” helps researchers at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology , the National Audubon Society, and Bird Studies Canada learn more about how the birds are doing—and how to protect them. Last year, participants turned in more than 93,600 checklists online, creating the continent’s largest instantaneous snapshot of bird populations ever recorded.
Speaking of birds, Naomi Sachs, at Therepeutic Landscapes has a wonderful article to help you get started with bird watching, and connecting with nature in winter. She’s got resources for bird watching, choosing the best plants for your garden, and identifying birds. Follow @healinggarden
Kathy Green asks How Green are Community Gardens at her site Gardening for Nature. She brings up some very interesting points and has bravely plunged into a sometimes political world. Can education span the gulf? I hope so! Follow @gardenfornature.
We’ve been following the heartbreaking eviction of the Blue Ridge Burrowing Owls via Scott Artis at JournOwl for some time here in this column. Just when it seemed that all was lost, Mother Nature has stepped in and gifted a reprieve on the owls. It seems that all one-way evicition doors and all collapsing of burrows has now ceased. YAY! Keep up the good fight, Scott! Follow @journowl
Rosemary at Toronto Gardening All Year Round has a wonderful article warning us all to beware of packaged wildflower seeds, because they contain many non-native species. She’s printed the contents of many popular blends and listed whether they are native or not. Thanks, Rosemary!
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About Carole Sevilla Brown
Stay warm, friend! H.
Carole,
Even in the middle of a Snow Event you manage another wonderful best of the web… amazing!
Keep warm and safe! LOVE the photo of the robin!
.-= Wendy´s last blog ..Photo Friday – Crayon Hearts =-.
Hi Carole, Thanks so much for the mention! It was an hard post to write, in that I wanted to make people think but not be put off by community gardens. Nature and community can definitely co-exist together!
I will definitely sign up to do the bird count, that is a fantastic project.
Kathy
.-= Kathy Green ´s last blog ..How Green does your Community Garden Grow? =-.
@Helen Thanks!
@Wendy it was the snow that kept me inside, so I had time to find this week’s treasures
@Kathy, I think every time we can have an actual discussion without folks on either side yelling at each other, that is all for the good, and education of all of us. I like how you presented the discussion without taking a political stance and opened it up for comments, which will help folks maybe look at all sides of an issue and maybe learn to make more beneficial choices. Thank you.
Thanks for spreading the word! It is all about shinning a light on current eviction practices. I attended the owl consortium meeting on Saturday and the population in California is still on decline and in the Bay Area appears to have dropped by ~27% since 1993. I’m waiting for the official analysis of the numbers.
Cheers,
Scott
.-= Scott´s last blog ..Suppressed Dept. of Fish and Game Burrowing Owl Report Exposed =-.
Keep up the good fight, Scott!