Author: Loree Burns

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From My Travel Journal …

This weekend I am reliving my six days at the butterfly sanctuaries in Mexico by transcribing my travel notes. I thought I’d share some of the entertaining bits here. This entry is from the first day, when we visited Cerro Pelon, a monarch sanctuary just outside the town of Zitácuaro in the state of Michoacán. Thankfully, Ellen’s photographs of me on horseback are not edited yet …


© Ellen Harasimowicz

“The path up Cerro Pelon was rocky, dry, and very dusty. My horse and I were lucky enough to be in the front a lot of the way, which saved me from the worst of it. My ‘caballo loco’, however, insisted upon taking the steep and rocky terrain at a run. I eventually learned a “smooch” sound told him to “GO!” and a yank on the red rope/bridle thingy told him to “STOP!”, but before I did there were some scary moments…

We saw a smattering of butterflies on the way up. As we neared the top, though, about an hour after setting out, the numbers swelled and the butterflies were everywhere. They were stunning against the blue sky …”

 

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The Great Sunflower Project


© Loree Griffin Burns

Attention Citizen Scientists!

The Great Sunflower Project, an initiative designed to help scientists understand local pollinator populations by recruiting bee-spotters across the country, gets underway this month. In order to participate, you must be willing to plant sunflower seeds (provided), tend them, and once they bloom, watch them. Yep, watch them. Twice a month, participants are asked to observe their sunflowers and record how long it takes for five bees to arrive.

In the words of Gretchen LeBuhn, professor at San Francisco State University and director of The Great Sunflower Project, “We know very little about bee activity in home and community gardens and their surrounding environments, but we are certain that they are a crucial link in the survival of native habitats and local produce, not to mention our beautiful urban gardens. Our local pollinator populations require our understanding & protection, and to answer that call we need to determine where and when they are at work.”

The Great Sunflower Project website has loads more information on the project and how to participate. Check it out, and spread the word!

 

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Change Has Come

Tomorrow marks the beginning of my Grand Mexican Adventure. I couldn’t leave without a small goodbye book tip, though, so here you go:

CHANGE HAS COME, An Artist Celebrates Our American Spirit
The drawings of Kadir Nelson
With the words of Barack Obama

Kadir Nelson’s pen and ink drawings are paired with lines from various speeches Barack Obama gave during the recent Presidential campaign. The combination is a stirring reminder of the Obama message, and it was a perfect book for this somewhat overwhelming week. (Overwhelming personally, as I prepare for my trip, and overwhelming generally, as our new administration begins the difficult work of moving the country forward.)

Treat yourself to a nice cup of tea and a look at CHANGE HAS COME this week; think of me when you do. I’ll see you all in about a week…

 

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Butterflies, Butterflies, Butterflies

Butterflies are on my mind this week…

There’s this lovely quote from poet Rabindranath Tagore:

“The butterfly counts not the months but moments, and has time enough.”

And the gorgeous book I found it in:

FLYING FLOWERS
By Rick Sammon
Welcome Books, 2004

And a vacation week day-trip here to see these:

And preparations for a grand adventure here to see millions of these:


© Ellen Harasimowicz

I’ve even been writing about these:

(Any guesses what they are?)

 

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2009 Great Backyard Bird Count


© Scott Weins, Eastern Screech Owl

No, we didn’t see any Eastern Screech Owls in our Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) on Saturday. But my beginning birders and I did see:

2 Red-bellied Woodpeckers
1 Downy Woodpecker
1 Hairy Woodpecker
4 Blue Jays
2 American Crows
3 Black-capped Chickadees
3 Tufted Titmice
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
4 American Robin
1 Northern Cardinal
1 House Finch
5 American Goldfinch

It was a glorious morning of sunshine, melting snow, and hands-on science. Ours was one of over 54,000 GBBC checklists submitted so far; you can find more 2009 GBBC stats and results here.

Hooray for citizen science!

 

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The Truro Bear and Other Adventures

I have been without internet access since Monday. Initially I stomped and grumped and whined. But a funny thing happened midweek: while trying to distract myself, I slipped deeply into a WIP. Very deeply. It felt so good. And as my working hours acquired a steady beat, I warmed to unplugged life. What a fine, unencumbered and productive feeling it is to work without the pull of the world wide web! Now that reconnection is imminent (if you are reading this, I am back online), I am searching for ways to reinforce this beautiful (and productive) rhythm I’ve found. What luck to have had this book on my nightstand:

THE TRURO BEAR AND OTHER ADVENTURES
By Mary Oliver
Beacon Press, 2008

I basked in Mary Oliver’s poems and essays as I learned to bask in the quiet these past few days. To me, this is a book about slowing down, about taking the time to see, about encountering awe in every cobweb, embracing it with your eyes and ears and mouth, with your hands and your head and your heart. My favorite entry is an essay called “Swoon”, which starts this way:

“In a corner of the stairwell of this rented house a most astonishing adventure is going on.”

And, oh yes!, it is astonishing. I am reminded of my friends Jean-Henri Fabre (who is quoted, to my delight, in the frontispiece of this volume) and Sue Hubbell. I am reminded, again, that in order to see incredible things one must look. Only look.

Here’s to looking and to embracing the quiet … in spite of the internet.

 

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Focus on Feeders

After the kids left on Saturday, I spent some time outside laying in the snow near the feeder, camera in hand. That’s when I saw the little fellow in the photo above, a pine siskin; another first for my backyard! Incredible what you will SEE when you actually take a minute to LOOK.

Anyway, I thought I’d share the Focus on Feeder report data that I am about to submit to MassAudubon. All told, we saw fourteen species of birds over the weekend:

4 American Goldfinch
6 Black-capped chicadees
2 Blue Jays
1 Carolina Wren
5 Dark-eyed Juncos
2 Downy Woodpeckers
2 Hairy Woodpeckers
6 House Finches
14 Mourning Doves
2 Northern Cardinals
2 Pine Siskins
1 Red-bellied Woodpecker
2 Tufted Titmice
4 White-breasted nuthatches

Not bad for one backyard!

If all this bird talk and citizen science talk has got your juices flowing, visit the Great Backyard Bird Count webpage to learn how you can conduct a bird census of your own this weekend, February 13-16, 2009. We Burnses are in, which is why I am off to fill my feeders again …

 

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On Citizen Science

Long-time readers of this blog know that I am a fan of citizen science, science conducted by volunteers on behalf of professional scientists studying real world problems. How can you not be intrigued by the idea of a layperson—particularly a kid—making a big scientific discovery in their backyard? (For an example, read this.)

Equally appealing to me is the ability of citizen science projects to connect people with nature. Fostering this connection can be hard in the electronic age, and I know that citizen science is a great way to do it. That’s why I am writing the book CITIZEN SCIENTISTS (Henry Holt, 2011), and that’s why I participate in (and blog about) citizen science. Care for an example? The bird count I hosted this weekend in my backyard.

My count was attended by mostly eight-to-ten-year-olds, and they were well-rested (we met at 8am!) and excited to be together (they seemed to think our gathering was a party more than a science project). While they were all generally interested in birds, they were equally interested in the basement playroom. And the goodies I had baked. And the new computer my sons got for Christmas. They listened politely to my overview of the project, and to the tips given to them by our local birding expert, Professor Richard Quimby. But they weren’t hooked until we stepped out into the snow and saw what was going on outside …

The birds were having a party of their own, right at my feeders. We saw some regulars, of course: black-capped chickadees and tufted titmice and blue jays, birds the kids were familiar with. But it wasn’t until we saw three types of woodpecker on a single suet-festooned tree that the kids sucked in their collective breaths.

“What is that one?” someone whispered.

“I think it’s a woodpecker,” someone whispered back.

As we watched the threesome feast—one downy woodpecker, one hairy woodpecker and one red-bellied woodpecker—the kids became fascinated with the idea that they might see something else they’d never seen before. And, oh, did the birds cooperate! For the first time EVER, a Carolina wren made its appearance on a suet feeder. What a day to visit!

The kids eventually wandered off to play in the snow fort the Burns children had built out front. But they wandered back every so often, singly and in small groups, to see who was at the feeders. It was pretty cool. One of the parents even got into it, telling me that she planned to stop on the way home for some seed to fill her long-empty feeders.

“Do you think this many birds live around my house?” she asked me.

Yep. I sure do.

(Ten points if you can name the three birds in the photos above!)

 

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The Hunger Games

THE HUNGER GAMES
By Suzanne Collins
Scholastic, 2008

Category: Young adult science fiction

This past December I was on the hunt for a special book. It needed to be riveting. It needed to be thought provoking. It needed to appeal to me and, most importantly, it needed to appeal to my twelve-year-old friend Alison. I planned to give Alison a book for Christmas and I wanted it to be something we would both adore and want to talk about long after we’d finished reading. When I read this review by Kate Messner, I wondered if THE HUNGER GAMES might fit the bill.

It did!

I read the entire book in two sittings, ignoring some very important tasks (sleep, for one) in order to find out what would happen to Katniss Everdeen. I read the last page in the wee hours and heaved a huge sigh, wishing already for the next installment of the story. And then, thanks to a post at the new Kidlitosphere Central, I discovered that the second book will look like this … and that Advanced Reader Copies will be available at BEA in May.

!

I will be at BEA this May!

I will be at BEA this May with Kate Messner!

What do you say, Kate … shall we plan on hunting down an ARC of CATCHING FIRE together? You (and your son and your parents) and I (and Alison) can share it!

**Edited to Add**
Huge, sad sigh. Kate–who has a much better head for details than I do–reminded me that we will not be at BEA at all. I was thinking of an entirely different conference. I will have to wait and read CATCHING FIRE with the rest of the world. Repeat: huge, sad sigh.