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Sunday, December 5, 2010

cerulean blues





Exquisitely blue. Some might say "heavenly," as perhaps should I.

If you are one of those reading Jonathan Franzen's new book Freedom—and it seems like many of the people I know are or have already read it—then this is the marvelous species at the center of environmentalist Walter's concerns.

Rightly so.

The cerulean warbler is declining faster than any other warbler species in the United States; some report that its population is only one-fifth of what it was just 40 years ago, that is everywhere except in the Cumberland Mountains of East Tennessee. There, the diminutive songbird seems to be holding its own, at least for now.

What is going right there, that's going wrong elsewhere?

I proudly work with naturalist Emily Boves at Ijams Nature Center. Emily has assisted her husband Than with a cerulean warbler study the past six years. Dennis McCarthy (yet another friend of Ijams) recently penned an article in UT's Quest magazine about the declining warbler and some of Than Boves' findings. For the link, go here: cerulean.

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