Environmental writer Jim O'Neill has an excellent story on the decline of Rusty Blackbirds in The Record today.

The link is here.

And yes, we do get them on occasion in the Celery Farm.

In 2008, we asked folks for their favorite Celery Farm memories. Earlier  this week, we printed three.

A lot of time has passed -- does anyone have any CF memories they'd acre to share? Send them -- with pix if possible -- to [email protected].

Five and a half years ago, I asked friends of this blog to send in their favorite memories, moments and images.

Here's the third of three posts that resulted.

Sally Teschon writes: "I miss the snakes."

   Sad to say, I had grown so used to looking at the marsh warden's wonderful whimsical carved snakes that I didn't realize that almost all of them had disappeared.

   I called the warden, who sometimes calls himself Joe King, and said the snakes were great but he has moved on. "I used to collect stamps, too."

  Say it ain't so, Joe. The snakes are the best.

  Click here for more of Sally's snake shots -- good thing Sally photographed many of them!

Wow! A big thank you to everyone who took the time to participate in the second  and apparently not-so-little "Birdy 30" competition.

Twenty folks participated -- including a birder from North Carolina. We did not have that many unusual birds today, but we did have a three-way tie for first place.

The winners are David Kaplan, Betty McDonnell, and that darned Stiles Thomas guy, who attributes his success to filling his feeders regularly since 1946. The birds "have it in their genes" to visit his feeders, he says. 

All three had an excellent 15 species in 30 minutes -- or one every two minutes.  Just think how many they would have gotten in an hour ... if you want to waste your time.

Congrats to the winners!

Full lists follow in alphabetical order of thee birders' last names.