There’s more news on the red knot front.

When we last left the subspecies, a good number of those leaving the Delaware Bay in late May had reached optimum body weights, priming them for reproductive success when they reached the Arctic.

I wrote about that development here.

Now, the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network has chimed in with an article that contains more good news.  In the spring, researchers documented a phenomenal feat: “Two individual knots stunned everyone by being seen in Florida by Pat and Doris Leary only 13 days after they were last seen in San Antonio Oeste, Argentina. The straight-line distance (which would involve an undocumented crossing of the Andes) would be about 7,800 kilometers; a more likely coastal route would involve traveling some 10,000 kilometers. This is the first hard evidence that knots move north without significant stopovers and is the result of intensified banding and resighting efforts made at an international scale over recent years.”

Then, on Delaware Bay, “Luís Benegas of Argentina, working with Allan Baker and Patricia González, resighted “B-95,” the same adult red knot he banded in Río Grande, Tierra del Fuego (Argentina), in 1995! B-95 is now at least 17 years old and continues to inspire us—and our supporters!”

But, alas, the news from up north has not been as good.

The Winnipeg Free Press noted last month that winter still gripped the Arctic, and migratory birds were unable to breed. “Prolonged cold snowy conditions in the Hudson Bay area are expected to obliterate the breeding season for migratory birds and most other species of wildlife this year,” the reporter wrote.

“According to Robert Jefferies, professor emeritus of botany at the University of Toronto, the last time there was a late spring in northern Manitoba, in 1983, there was a total reproductive "bust" in lesser snow geese. Most species of birds did not nest at all.”

So, as usual, the plot thickens....
 

Some of the 87

Amid all the rain and the dead seedlings and the late plantings, I’ve had an encouraging success: 87 heads of garlic!

Here’s how it all happened:

A few years ago I planted some garlic in the garden and it never quite took off. Very clay-ey soil. So I dug it all up and planted it in a garden formed by a rock wall on a hill, back filled with looser soil. Winter sun on the rocks keeps it warmish, too.

Last year, the garlic sprouted. I let the green plant-tops die back like I thought I was supposed to. But then, I couldn’t find all the garlic. Partly, I’m sure, it was because it was so small.

This year - WOW! — the greenery came up gonzo. Last weekend, I was weeding around it, and a lot of the leaves looked dead. I consulted the ridiculously comprehensive “Growing Great Garlic” - 213 pages of musings and advice, thank you — and got more confused than ever. Harvest now or later? Rinse or dry dirty?

But as I was pulling weeds, the soil seemed so loose that I grabbed ahold of a garlic top and pulled gently. Out came a big one. My husband joined in and we pulled it all. In 10 mins, we had the most amazing bounty.

The heads have been drying (slightly rinsed) on the back porch for a few days. This morning, with rain forecast, 85 of them went into a large, flat basket inside. (Two had already gone into spaghetti sauce.)

Meanwhile, we spent seven hours of gardening on Monday, a day off. We put nets around the blueberries, filled in a few blank spaces in the garden with more tomato plants and  planted more cukes, limas, string beans and okra where the critters had eaten them.

The chard seems to be the favorite of whatever’s been getting under/through/over the fence. Just nubs are left. But we covered them with netting and hope they’ll grow back. It’s pretty hardy stuff.

I finally got the eggplant seedlings into the ground, too. I sprinkled pepper all around and over them, and so far they have been immune to the critters and flea beetles. They may even be growing a bit.

This time of year it seems like all work and no pay-off.

But the older cukes and some squashes have flowers.

And some little green tomatoes are forming.

Can dinner be far behind?
 

(Photo courtesy of Chris Ganister)

The two red-tailed hawks nesting on a ledge of the  Franklin Institute -- and lately, their three young -- have been the city's ornithological celebrities in recent weeks. No doubt, it has a lot to do with the webcam that's given watchers an eyeful of their every move.

But the folks at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania want us to know THEY have hawks, too.  The parents nested on a ledge in the corner of the White and Ravdin buildings, reports Chris Ganister, Department of Surgery Systems Administrator, University of Pennsylvania Health Systems.

His office is just across from the nest, and he's been photographing the two adults and the two young they hatched.

Ganister says the youngsters haven't flown yet; although they spend a lot of time these days running along the ledge and flapping their wings. He says the best places to see them from the ground are just south of 34th and Spruce, or from 34th and Civic Center Boulevard.

I have to write myself a note so next year I’ll remember: Planting seeds indoors is time-consuming, expensive and frustrating!!!!

Every year I tell myself I’m going to buy plants from the nursery, and instead, every year I get sucked into buying all these seeds from the catalog companies. Last year, the plants turned out great. But this year, an entire flat of tomatoes turned reddish, then sort of blackish, and then they died. Ditto marigolds, of all things, which have to be among the easiest things to grow on earth.

So two weeks ago, my husband and I went to a local garden center, got a wonderful variety of tomatoes for only $30 — very close to the amount we had spent on tomato seeds, if I recall correctly, seeing as how we couldn’t resist buying about six different kinds. 

Two hours later: instant garden! And they were big enough to withstand the heavy rains that followed, whereas even the best of my young seedlings would have gotten thumped.

That said, I still love the act of planting a seed and the miracle of watching it sprout. So I’ll stick to the squashes and beans and cucumbers and such, which you can plant right in the ground and which come up sturdy. And, I swear, NEXT YEAR, buy plants when it comes to the more delicate veggies.

Now if only we could keep up with the weeding. Why is that every time we don’t have plans for the weekend, it rains? And every time we do have plans, it’s good gardening weather?

On a happier note: The salad pots are cranking away like mad. We’re getting several salads a week. Ditto the chard. (Which I started indoors, by the way).

My husband is the chard maestro: He cooks it down with oil, onions and garlic. Adds a little nutmeg. Then ham or bacon. Then walnuts. And at the last moment, Parmesan. Yum!

P.S. We have eight new chicks, tiny things that hop about and peep like crazy, and a new worm bin. Stay tuned.
 

Well, I was wrong in my prediction that the Franklin Institute red-tailed hawks might take their first flights on Saturday.  Oh well, at least it gives us more time to watch the daily dramas in the nest! And more time for Kay Meng to add to her spectacular photo album.

I went by the Franklin yesterday at about 5 p.m. with my binoculars.  The birds looked tremendous. And FOUR other people were there with binocs, too. A popular spot.

If you're watching the cam, don't forget to check out the log of comments on the Ustream site.

Meanwhile, the tree swallows at the Natural Lands Trust's Hildacy Farm in Media have hatched! I've been watching, and I don't even think their eyes are clear. But those little mouths open for sure when food arrives! See the webcam here.

A reader has sent info about a wonderful site that lists scads of bird cams -- including an albatross cam from New Zealand (look for the action in January, not now). Scroll down about halfway and look to the left for the list of cam links.

Copyright 2009 Kay Meng

If the three red-tailed hawks in the nest atop a third-floor ledge of the Franklin Institute adhere to nature’s timetable, they should be taking their first flights soon.

I’m betting on Saturday. I’m betting it will be a brilliantly sunny morning, no hint of clouds or rain, excellent weather for a first flight. The hawks will come back to the nest after that – not like some birds that fly off and never return – so the thousands of people who have become so attached will still have some sights to see.

For those who haven’t been following, the site for the Franklin’s web “hawkcam” is http://www2.fi.edu/hawknest.php. But if you double click on the picture, it will take you here --   http://www.ustream.tv/channel/Franklin-Institute-Hawk-Nest -- where many, many people have been posting comments as they have watched the young ones hatch and grow.

Not long ago, Kay Meng, a Delaware County resident, posted a link to spectacular photos she took. They’re here: http://www.pbase.com/c_w_i_d_p/urban_redtail_hawk

Meng, the principal’s secretary at Little Flower High School, contends she’s no professional photographer. She started as a hobbyist when her kids were little. The family would go hiking and fishing, and pretty soon she found she enjoyed taking nature photos more than trying to get humans to agree to get in front of the lens.

“It’s just an amazing thing to watch,” she said of the whole hawk business. “There’s something powerful, when they spread those wings and take off, especially the parents. It’s like, wow! “

Wow, indeed. Her photos are just that.

The people posting on the ustream site are beside themselves with appreciation. Meng posted the photos as part of a project for a women’s photograph group. Up until Sunday, the folder of hawk photos had maybe 25 page views. Now, it’s more than 1,500.

Meanwhile, the young hawks will inevitably spend longer and longer amounts of time away from the nest.  For all those who got hooked on the drama and are experiencing withdrawal – or empty nest syndrome --   here’s a little something to help: The Natural Lands Trust has installed an infrared camera in a nest box at its Hildacy Farm headquarters in Media. The box was intended for bluebirds, but this year tree sparrows took up residence. A common occurrence, alas. But it should still be exciting. There are five eggs. Oliver Bass, Senior Director of Development and Communications, says they could hatch any day now.

You can view the cam live here: http://www.natlands.org/categories/article.asp?fldArticleId=134

On Wednesday, various groups are unveiling a 130-page birding and wildlife guide to eastern Pennsylvania. It's full of spectacular photos and useful information about great birding sites where there's interesting wildlife activity year-round -- places like the Quakertown Swamp and French Creek State Park and the Churchville Nature Center ... and lots, lots more.

The guide also includes an eloquent introduction by the incomparable natural history author, Scott Weidensaul. "Eastern Pennsylvania is a birding paradise," he writes. "From the gulls and waterfowl on lakes Nockamixon on Ontelaunee, to the songbird-haunted forests of the Pocono plateau and to the Kittatinny Ridge overlooks like Hawk Mountain and Bake Oven Know with their parade of migrant raptors -- there is always something with feathers to make a day outside worthwhile."

Not only that, but it's also a cradle of American bird study. Think John J. Audubon and William Bartram.

Among six press previews being held throughout the 13-county area covered in the book, are ones the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum on Philadelphia's southern border, the Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve just south of New Hope, the John J. Audubon Center at Mill Grove in Audubon.

After that, copies will be available free to the public, while supplies last.

Funded in part through a Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources grant, the guide was created through a partnership of the Schuylkill River Heritage Area, Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor, the National Parks Service and Lehigh Gap Nature Center.

A list of sites offering the guide can be viewed on SHRA’s Web site at www.schuylkillriver.org., or D&L’s Web site at www.delawareandlehigh.org. Guides can also be ordered from those web sites for $10, to cover shipping and handling. 

The Philadelphia Water Department, with support from the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, has selected the winners of its annual “Protect Philadelphia’s Hidden Streams” student art contest.

More than 1,500 entries were received, and the winners will get quite a showing. The first-place drawings for each age category will be displayed on advertisements for one year inside SEPTA buses and trains. These along with eight other award-winning entries, will be published in a calendar available for free  at the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center.

This year, the contest included a new video category, and the winning entries are being highlighted in the calendar in addition to being featured on Flickr, YouTube (keyword search “Delaware Estuary”) and the website of the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary.

And the winners are:

Drawing Category:

9th - 12th Grade: 1st prize, Keith Palmer; 2nd, Dominique Mills; 3rd, Shanice Canty, all of the Maritime Academy Charter School (of Lower Northeast Philadelphia).

6th - 8th Grade: 1st prize, Patricia Conway; 2nd, Nikelous Heisler; 3rd, Nicholas Gambino, all of CCA Baldi Middle School (of Far Northeast Philadelphia).

3rd - 5th Grade: 1st prize, Billy Killen, Jr., Maritime Academy Charter School; 2nd, Simone Rogers, St. Francis de Sales Catholic School (of West Philadelphia); 3rd, Nigel Law, Germantown Friends School.

 Kindergarten - 2nd Grade: 1st prize, Christopher Mendez, John Moffet Elementary School (of Kensington); 2nd, Destiny Cruz, John Moffet Elementary School; 3rd, Steven Wang, Solis Cohen Elementary School (of Lower Northeast Philadelphia).

Video Category:

1st prize, Brandon Cummons, Kevin Jones and R.J. Spurgeon, Maritime Academy Charter School; 2nd, Maleek Armstrong and Jeff Konce, Maritime Academy Charter School; 3rd, Aedhan Loomis, home entry from Center City Philadelphia.
 

EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson (right) gets a tour of the West Philadelphia car by students (from left) Jacques Wells; Lawrence Jones-Mahoney, former student and now a Drexel freshman; Eric Yates; Azeem Hill; and Anita Davidson. (CLEM MURRAY/Staff Photographer)

Lisa Jackson could only grin in amazement as she climbed into the driver’s seat of the best little car that West Philly — and maybe just about anybody, anywhere  — has ever made.

She was at the West Philadelphia High School Academy for Automotive and Mechanical Engineering, and the red sports car, the Hybrid K-1 Attack, has been proven to get 60 miles per gallon on biodiesel and has get-up that will make you go-go.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s new administrator, formerly head of New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection, was in town earlier today and made it a point to come to the school to congratulate the members of its Hybrid X team.

As if winning the eco-car competition, the Tour de Sol, not just once, not just twice, but THREE times wasn’t enough, the team of about a dozen high-schoolers is now at work on a new car for a new competition.

Even considering they’re competing against automakers and other innovative groups, they've been rated among the top ten teams to win the international Progressive Automotive X Prize — which just happens to come with a $10 million purse. And why not? Their previous car beat MIT; it beat Detroit. And more.

The new baby, made from a white Ford Focus, will get 100 mpg on biobutanol and an electric charge.

“Ideas like these will determine our country’s future,” Jackson told the students and an assortment of dignitaries, from Chaka Fattah to Lisa Nutter. Noting that the nation’s auto industry was “in a little trouble right now,” Jackson told the students, “you are the key to the ideas that will bring them into the future.”

She said they were clearly “ahead of the curve.  You know first-hand that we don’t have to choose between a healthy green environment and a healthy green economy.”

Part of the deal in developing new cars at West Philly is coming up with a business plan to match. The students have been working on a plan to build 10,000 of the new cars and sell them for less than $25,000 each.

“I’m so excited we finally have a visionary like her,” Simon Hauger, director of the team, said of Jackson. “As the green economy emerges, my hope and my prayer is that folks like her make sure there’s a place for my students.”

Jackson already is.  She said she hoped the students would would consider a careers at the EPA’s National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory in Ann Arbor, Mich., where clean automotive technology research is going on. “I challenge you to stay engaged,” Jackson said. “I’m looking forward to seeing where you’re going to take us.”

Several of the students took the podium to explain more about their amazing cars:

“The students dreamed big,” said Eric Yates, a senior.

"Sophomore Azeem Hill noted how their new-generation vehicle, in addition to its 100 mpg, will emit only 200 grams of carbon per miles and go from zero to 60 in under 12 seconds.

“I know we have what it takes to win,” said Jacques Wells, a junior. When the students first began using biodiesel and plug-in technology, few knew where they even were. But the students proved it could work.

Now, the West Philly Hybrid X Team is “ensuring a bright green future” for the city, said Anita Davidson, a senior.

“Just” high-schoolers? They were poised, articulate and knowledgeable.

Later, after Jackson stepped from the car, she shook her head and grinned some more. “These kids,” she said, “know what they’re totally about.”

(You can follow the students’ progress at www.evxteam.org)