My colleague and friend, Donna Hughes, often sends me the most fetching photographs of the birds that grace her 52-acre farm. They are always composed and radiate dignity, the very name of the journal she founded. According to Dr. Donna, she has spent a “decade rehabilitating the land. Whacking invasive species, restoring wetlands, building a protective buffer along my 1/2 mile of stream, and planting thousands of native trees, shrubs, and flowers. ….Every year I do more. At the rate (at which) we are losing birds and insects I'm sure I can't do enough.” I am awed by such physical labor and by the laborer’s ecological consciousness. Wish I could hear them tweeting away…

Female House Finch

Grackle

Black-capped Chickadee