10,000 Birds

MARCH 6, 2014

'Brian Stoneman (1946-2009) was a friend of mine and a top class birder. He grew up in the London East End and spoke hardly understandable cockney. After his early retirement due to lung cancer, when doctors were giving him up to two years more to live, he moved to the coast of Turkey where he bought a half-finished house whose foundations were washed by the waves of the Aegean Sea, met the love of his life and cheated the doctors for quite some time.

Turkey 218

Turkey 2006 Europe Pelicans 218

Animal Ethics

MARCH 6, 2014

'To the Editor: Re “They’re Going to Wish They All Could Be California Hens” (front page, March 4): While the conditions in California’s colony cages are certainly better than those of the barren battery cages used for 90 percent of egg-laying hens in this country, they still involve cramming 60 animals into a wire cage, each bird with just 116 square inches in which to live her entire life At Farm Sanctuary, we spend our lives with hens, and we can attest that chickens are individuals with need

New York Times 40

New York Times New York Farm Sanctuary Battery Cages 40

10,000 Birds

MARCH 6, 2014

'Paul Hurtado has a very well-thought-out post on birding (or not birding) places where the politics are problematic, to say the least. Would you go birding in Uganda, where the punishment for being gay is now life in prison?

Uganda 165

Uganda Birds 165