Twenty Words Are Worth A Picture

BIRD NEWS IS GOOD NEWS

I tried some of the news feeds that would bring me the most current news stories. Every breaking story I read was bad news: swine flu outbreak, more bombings, political bickering, etc. Then I found a site that covered "bird news"; for the last twelve hours there were no stories.

There is something wrong with this picture! The world human population as of April 2009 is estimated at 6.77 billion; the last guess-timate for the world bird population as of 1951 was in the 100 billions (it was a guess, since not all the bird species were even known).

Birds greatly outnumber us, yet the only time they get any attention in the news is when they fly into jets! In my own small way, I'm going to try to remedy this by posting pictures of our fine feathered friends.

Happy Earth Day

It was quite appropriate for Earth Day that one of the technology sites was showing a chart of how much water was used for various things, e.g, 6 gallons for flushing a toilet and 37 gallons for producing a cup of coffee, to indicate one's "water footprint".

My first thought was "I'm not going to give up my cup of coffee; instead, I'll flush less". On further reading, however, it became clearer that the chart was mixing "Direct Use" with "Virtual Use" (that is, the water it takes to get a product to the consumer).

So, I will definitely look into ways of reducing "Direct Use" of water and still have my cup of coffee. I'll drink to that!

Why "For the Birds"? In truth, posts will include more than bird trivia. It's more about what's important in my life. I actually do start my day with the birds. While the coffee is perking, I go outside to replenish the bird feeders (last count there were eleven) that are hosts for everything from finches to hummingbirds. After my coffee, I feed my indoor budgerigar. This is actually a wonderful way to start every day. I promise to link you to more interesting sites and some pictures, but I'm still at the start of my learning curve.

Planting radishes is easier than posting notes.

This is my first posting. Now that I have the garden in, I can concentrate on indoor things until the weeds start growing. This also allows the finches to get back to their bird feeders.