No Man Has Any Right To Buy And Sell The Earth For Private Gain

Ferruginous Hawk. Just big enough to fly off with a newborn baby. And don't think it wouldn't...well, maybe if it was wearing a bunny suit.

I hate to say it, but I've been awfully busy the last few days...I've been doing a lot of writing (some of which is just for you...but not now) so I thought I would give both you and me a break from the usual vulgar bird banter and just share some news instead. Is that kosher? Good. Of course, I'll throw in some of the local North Dakota life as well.

Bird blogging. I do it, maybe you do too. It's weird...really weird. But a couple months ago someone actually made a list of the leading bird blogs, which you can see here here. Sadly, BB&B does not make the list...but its just a matter of time. The Great Ornithologist Felonious Jive is hatching an insidious and rather immoral plot to rectify the situation as we speak. Anyways. Dude apparently used this complicated tool known as "math" to figure who is who in the birdosphere. Props to 10,000 Birds for taking the top spot. Now as far as I know, all of these sites are based in the United States, so I'm not sure if these are biggest North American bird blogs or really are the biggest in the world. Surely the Brits have some good ones...

Bobolink. One of the best birds in the world.

In less meta type news, Britain is the newest country to publicly declare war...on rats! Check out the brief (yet sweet) slideshow here on the battleground of Henderson Island, an incredibly isolated island in the South Pacific. Maybe Californians will be getting some more Murhpy's Petrels as a result?

Shooting star. It pretty.

For all you good ol' patriots who think that our other wars (where we kill people instead of rats) are a really good idea, I ask you to guess what air conditioning alone costs the U.S. in Afghanistan and Iraq every year. What's that? 20.2 billion fucking dollars? That's just crazy...but it seems to be the right answer. NPR does all the math here. Just think what that money could do for, I don't know, poverty, education, health care, fighting climate change...helping birds?

Savannah Sparrow. You can't live with 'em, you can't live without 'em. Just kidding you can totally live with them.

Brutal. But, to go out on a couple high(er) note, new uranium mines will be temporarily banned on 1 million acres around the Grand Canyon to protect the Colorado River watershed, and you can read about that here. Edward Abbey would be stoked.

And if you liked the Midway post, then go to the French Frigate Shoals blog and get a quick education on the world's oldest Bonin Petrels.

That's all you get nerds! Have a good one!