Wonderful column by Joel Connelly today in the Seattle P-I

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I just felt good after reading it. I recommend you read the whole thing.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/connelly/222746_joel04.html

Wednesday, May 4, 2005

In The Northwest: The birds have such songs to sing and stories to tell

By JOEL CONNELLY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST

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Just last week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker in a cottonmouth-filled Arkansas swamp. The world's greatest woodpecker -- with a 19-inch wingspan -- it had gone unseen for 60 years.

An almost-as-large pileated woodpecker was at work Sunday on our Whidbey Island property, distinctive with its black body, white throat and red crest at the rear of its head. A pair of gray, diminutive downy woodpeckers pecked at suet from a bird feeder.

One Seattle editorialist, writing half a century ago, dismissed those pressing to preserve the North Cascades as "mountain climbers and birdwatchers."

"Birdwatchers" was a term of derision back then. As recently as 1953, Alaska offered a bounty on our national symbol, offering 50 cents to $2 for each pair of bald eagle feet.

</snip>

Much more, including a crow called DeLay....

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