Birders in Arkansas are talking about bird food--not the schlock we put
out on the patio, but the natural food sources birds have used for
millennia. Their discussion is at http://birding.aba.org/maillist/AR  .
We have reached a point where only elderly observers remember seeing
clouds of fireflies in the city, bugs swarming around porch lights and
streetlights, gobs of dead insects on the screens underneath the car's
hood, etc. I recall moving into Columbus's Clintonville in 1990, when on
many a summer evening I walked down to the school, where nighthawks
hunted insects in the lights of the local schoolyard, buzzing as they
harvested the mosquitoes I attracted. Too often removal of local
vegetation is followed by mists of chemical pesticides. Nearly all
nighthawks are seen here now only during their quick migratory fall
returns from remote areas in Canada to South America, and butterflies
are getting harder and harder to find. It's hard to say exactly what
ripping the web of life will bring, but birders will be among the first
to notice it.
Bill Whan
Columbus

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