It takes a village ...

It takes a village

to make a cookie house !!

Wishing everyone a healthy, joyous, fulfilling and peaceful 2010 !!

- Steve

Sandpipers reflected in the sand on Block Island (May 2009)

This week as I was driving on the highway, I saw an SUV bearing an eye-catching bumper sticker that read, "Piping Plover tastes like chicken."

The Piping Plover is listed as a threatened species by the U.S. government, and as endangered by most states in which it nests. One subspecies lives on the Atlantic Coast of the U.S.; another lives in the mid-west. The total population on the east coast of the United States is between 1,000 and 2,000 breeding pairs. With some protection to its habitat, the population has been rising slowly.

I googled the bumper sticker. It is sold on the CafePress self-publishing website; the note posted by the seller reads, "Sick of overprotective birders? Tell 'em how you really feel."

The bumper sticker made me ask myself questions to which I have trouble imagining answers. How many people have bought these bumper stickers? What makes them hate the idea of protecting animals and habitats so much? Do they understand how violent the message is?

The day I saw the Piping Plover bumper sticker, I was listening to the radio while driving. The program I heard during the whole drive -- including when I saw the Piping Plover bumper sticker -- was an interview with Richard Ellis, whose latest book On Thin Ice declares that global warming has progressed so far that it is already too late to avoid the extinction of the polar bear sometime in the next 50 years.

The SUV driver, I would assume, was tuned into a different station.

Welcome to my photo blog. Once a week (or so) I will post one of my photos, and I'll say a few words about it. Some of the pictures may be new and some may be my old favorites ... in this case: I had the chance to spend a day in the New Hampshire woods by myself this fall on an incredible gift-from-the-heavens clear day. Most of the day I worked re-clearing an old trail, surrounded by the noise and smell of a chain saw. Every now and then I stopped ... drank some water ... and looked up. Sometimes it's hard to remember to look up.