I have gotten little traction for my proposal to leash the King of suburbia, felis catus.
Had occasion to be reminded of cats’ killing prowess when Gordon hauled in a Cardinalis cardinalis.
Gordo growled to be sure I didn’t mess with the bird while she tried to clear her lips of those pesky bird feathers.
Meanwhile, out on Market Street, two members of Turdus migratorius clan are road kill, extinguished by that other King of suburbia, the automobile.
What kills birds? Consultants to the Wind Power Industry on birds and other wildlife issues, Curry and Kerlinger LLC put together some numbers which hold that glass windows are the largest bird slayer, 100-900 million birds per year. (love that range, factor of nine. Doesn’t inspire confidence).
House cats and motor vehicles each dispatch a 100 million.
I feel like a politician, “don’t believe the numbers”. From my experience, domestic cats rule in the realm of shredded tweet. That 100 million dead for cats, way low.
Leash law for the kitties!
Category: fishbones
reenactors
Our City is celebrating its 250th anniversary this year. That is put into perspective when one sees a 30th generation Japanese rice farmer displaced from ancestral fields by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear melt.
We don’t have that sort of multi-generational continuity here. We don’t have any 250 year old trees, people get impatient and cut the big ones down. We do have a nuke-u-lar plant the next county over. We care for the parts of our history that don’t interfere with the seamless operation of automobiles.
We are sensitive revisionists, we ask “is the military statuary appropriate?”
We remake the place. We remove the parts that offend. Then we apologize.
what remains
oaks, east McIntire
Felis catus
quercus alba
The Va Department of Forestry’s seedling store is open. Buy a ten pack, share with your neighbors.
Caprica
contrails, Rivanna floodplain.
public service
bones
I am particularly fond on this time of year in Virginia, the bones of the world are visible.
One day I’ll have a telephoto lens on the camera when this big bird does a low altitude fly-over.
R.E. Lee
solitary commander, rebels arrested
four chairs
