Archive | animals RSS feed for this section
Avoiding Factory Farm Foods

Avoiding Factory Farm Foods

If you believe that it’s wrong to subject animals to a lifetime of pain and deprivation, you should be very careful about what you eat. Virtually all animal foods in this country — not just meat, but milk, cheese and eggs — are produced by a system of agriculture that subjects farm animals to just [...]

Read full storyComments { 9 }
Share Your Plant and Animal Sightings

Share Your Plant and Animal Sightings

Your wildlife photos and observations are the makings of real science — even those of common species such as the house sparrow. Don’t keep them to yourself and your Facebook or Flickr friends. Join Project Noah and share them with the world or use them to help build the Encyclopedia of Life. It’s fun, but [...]

Read full storyComments { 1 }
Saving Jamaica Bay

Saving Jamaica Bay

I often think we undervalue the nature spots that are not wildernesses — the ones in and near cities and towns. Not only do these underappreciated places provide precious habitat for wildlife within the built environment, they also give humans respite from the hustle-bustle of modern life. Jamaica Bay in New York City is one [...]

Read full storyComments { 12 }
Wild Animals in Our Midst

Wild Animals in Our Midst

What should communities do when deer habitat disappears and the animals spill out into yards, parks and streets? In the area where I grew up (Essex County, New Jersey), the community recently responded with deer hunts. The alternative — giving the deer contraception — was rejected due to cost. I was horrified. Not so long [...]

Read full storyComments { 15 }

Orca Watching PDF for Distribution

I’m posting a pdf of my column on the risk to Southern Resident Killer Whales from whale-watching boats and the alternative — land-based whale-watching. Feel free to print and distribute it to anyone who might be interested. Orca Watching — with No Harm Done

Read full storyComments { 0 }
Orca Watching with No Harm Done

Orca Watching with No Harm Done

This summer, I had the time of my life on a whale-watching boat trip to see orcas around San Juan Island. The orcas I saw are known as Southern Residents — a sub-group or maybe even sub-species of killer whale (the other name by which orcas go). Much to my chagrin, I later discovered.that the [...]

Read full storyComments { 6 }
Favorite Nature Spots

Favorite Nature Spots

About 14 months ago, I had the idea of sharing favorite nature spots among readers of This Green Life using Google Maps as the vehicle. This nature map has received some 300 odd contributions and is still going strong today. It includes recommendations of many amazing places I’d never even heard of. Finding them isn’t [...]

Read full storyComments { 1 }
Baby Pigeons

Baby Pigeons

My daughter has two new charges, given to her for foster-parenting by the Wild Bird Fund. Unlike Pidgie, these pigeons were not injured, just orphaned and malnourished. The somewhat older one, Buddy, who is standing in the picture below, was already doing a great deal of wing-flapping and making flight attempts a few inches here [...]

Read full storyComments { 3 }

My Daughter Saved the World!

Watch this video to see how — and read my companion piece on NRDC’s This Green Life, where I make the connection between saving city pigeons and saving wild wolves, who are now facing government sponsored hunts in the west. Save the wolves and save a world, too. By the way, the group where Rita, [...]

Read full storyComments { 7 }