March 26, 2007 [LINK / comment]

Spring migrants are arriving

With the sudden warming trend, at long last, it is no surprise that we are seeing new birds almost every day. During our trip through northern Augusta County yesterday, Jacqueline and I saw:

Today I saw some Chipping sparrows out back, another first-of-season bird species.

Rare owl in Peru

Here is encouraging news from the rain forest: a "long-whiskered owlet, one of the world's smallest owls, was spotted in February by researchers monitoring a private conservation area in Peru's northern jungle." It has become an endangered species because of deforestation, and fewer than one thousand are thought to remain. See CNN.com.