Beautiful wood ducks belong to North America, where the birds were driven nearly to extinction
The wood duck is among the most colorful and beautiful of waterfowl. We are lucky to have them after land clearing by early settlers and commercial hunting in the 1800s.
Attend meetings on new board member stipends, child’s emotional-support hens and much more
Public meetings this week look at introducing some board member stipends, enacting the choice of zero-space parking minimums, Rindge School of Technical Arts improvements and whether an 8-year-old gets to keep his emotional support chickens.
A week of events in Cambridge and Somerville, from an ‘Emerald Tutu’ to the Day of the Dead
In a look ahead at a week of Cambridge and Somerville events, there’s plenty of Halloween to be had, including a Peabody Museum “Day of the Dead” event and a Monster Mash on Somerville streets, as well as lots of readings, poetry, dance, music and art. We also learn how an “Emerald Tutu” can help keep us safe from climate change.
Mourning doves have a mortality rate to cry over, but survive better than passenger pigeon cousins
Although hunters kill more than 20 million to 70 million mourning doves every year, they are prolific breeders. The United States still has more than 400 million of a bird once mistaken frequently for the now extinct passenger pigeon.
Green jobs ordinance begins to take shape, imagining programs that will train workers
Cambridge may soon get a training program that focuses on jobs building out the green economy, from installing solar panels or wind turbines to urban agriculture and transit operations.
Attend meetings in Cambridge from Oct. 17-23: Vassal Lane school name change, lots of linkage
Public meetings this week look at a Vassal Lane Upper School name change, the effect of policy changes on development, a cannabis seller between Porter and Harvard squares, the future of Cambridge Street, a proposed green jobs law, and how to craft “linkage” fees for big construction and get more affordable housing.
A safe landing at Logan after a bird-plane clash shows progress made since 62 deaths in 1960
No passengers were hurt when a Delta flight out of Boston on Oct. 5 ran into some birds on takeoff, but this kind of incident hasn’t always had such good outcomes.
Ten ordinances to enact this session to combat climate change locally
While there’s no way to avoid many of the consequences of climate change, we can slow its progress by adopting some successful and mostly inexpensive “model laws.”
Reflections on a year at Mount Auburn Cemetery
Over the next year, Mount Auburn Cemetery will invite more people in the community to join our conversations about values – in life, and how they live on in death.
Woolly bear caterpillars’ ability to tell the weather is less surprising than their ability for surviving it
Since colonial times, people have used the woolly bear caterpillar as a predictor of winter weather to come – and a scientist took it on himself to test the theory.
