Urban issues

Kingfisher and I were out and about over the weekend. There’s not much joy in the Motor City these days. But we did make our way to one of Detroit’s bright spots for lunch, Slows Bar BQ. We had a…

One place I’ve been meaning to get to — not only to survey for birds but just from my interest in Detroit history — is the neighborhood in midtown called Brush Park. Brush Park was once one of Detroit’s most…

Via Invasive Species Weblog, a story from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the Wisconsin DNR will allow citizens in three southern counties in that state to “adopt” wild Mute Swans and spare them from approved lethal control measures, provided they…

Recently we returned to the urban prairie, with camera, to check up on the birds. Here’s the same neighborhood by City Airport shown in the previous post, from Google Maps

Do you remember the beautiful old beech tree I wrote about, the one that was being exposed by the building of trails in a new park? I had feared the woods would be ruined by invasive species and drying winds…

I’ve written before about doing bird survey work in the midst of some of Detroit’s most decaying neighborhoods. Early Sunday morning, husband and I set out to once again see what breeding birds we could find by driving routes through…

With the arrival of spring, I am again working on documenting breeding birds for our state breeding bird atlas. In my highly urban county, it seems reasonable that House Sparrow, European Starling, and Rock Pigeon are nesting in every quarter-township…

Lo! on the topmost pine, a solitary cicada Vainly attempts to clasp one last red beam of sun. — Japanese poem I actually got a call the other day from a man complaining about the sounds of cicadas and katydids….

While we’re talking about swans… My mitten-state neighbor TroutGrrrl over at Science and Sarcasm posted on the Michigan DNR’s request for Trumpeter Swan sightings. She gave a little overview and history of the effort to “reintroduce” Trumpeter Swans to Michigan….