Monday, March 09, 2009
Letter: Conduct Cost/Benefit on Nature Center
It seems to me that the decision whether to preserve Gulf Branch Nature Center should be based on a cost-benefit analysis of the number of countywide visitors relative to the overall costs, including salaries, maintenance, utilities, supplies, etc., of the facility.
The interested pleading of the Center's immediate neighbours cannot be a valid criterion, since validating them would mean that everyone in Arlington would also deserve a nature center in their neighborhood. (This holds for those who also wish to maintain the services of Westover and other branch libraries.) These considerations are especially important during the current budget crisis.
Ken Moskowitz
Ashton Heights
Labels: budget, gbnc, gulf branch nature center, nature
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Sure, They're Virginia's Bird, but They're Not So Bright
“The male cardinal fiercely defends its breeding territory from other males. When a male sees its reflection in glass surfaces, it frequently will spend hours fighting the imaginary intruder,” says the “All About Birds” web site from the Cornell Lab or Ornithology.
Last year, try as I might to capture a local cardinal on video attacking the hell out of my neighbor’s door, I could not.
The bird stood on the door knob, looked in the window, attacked and flew off to a nearby bush. Then, it flew to the next doorway and repeated the process. Back and forth it flew all last spring attacking and retreating, but never attacking when I was close enough to video it. Until now.
The cardinal, as you will see in the 30-second video below, is not just saving its vitriol for the glass of doors, but for our basement window, as well. It will attack for five or six minutes at a time before giving up, for a while.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Letter: Squirrels Are Hawk Sushi
I have seen the hawk (thought it might be a falcon) numerous times in the neighborhood. One time I saw it having squirrel sushi in a tree in my courtyard.
Talk to you later,
James Vandeputte
Labels: bird, hawk, mordecai, nature
