Features (All)

Article - Creature Feature; by Diana Beechener - 6/9/11

This Week’s Creature Feature ... Blue-Water Boaters...

Each year, thousands of citizens report their bird sightings to the Christmas Bird Count, the longest-running citizen science project in the world. This year researchers are hoping that citizens will take this bird sighting zeal from land to sea. The Christmas Bird Count at Sea aims to obtain information on pelagic birds, which spend their lives at sea. Because the birds are rarely researched, there is little way of telling how their habitats and lives are affected by...

Article - News; by C.T. Schwink - 6/9/11

The Show Will Go On!

But your cash will put more flash in July 4th Annapolis

Fireworks almost didn’t explode over Annapolis last year. With budget constraints and a lack of donations, the show looked doomed. With the clock close to expiring, the city and local business came through with the cash to fund the show. “I credit the city for keeping up with their participation,” said Chris Weir, the man in charge of July 4th Annapolis 2011. “It’s such a signature piece...

Article - Good Living; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 6/9/11

More Confessions of a Secret Boatbuilder

Even the Bay Gardener doesn’t thrive on vegetables alone

The latest addition to my fleet of boats I’ve built or restored is a 16-foot strip sea kayak. This was a two-winter project requiring some of the skills I learned when building my 16-foot strip canoe. However, this project required having to scarf all strips for added strength and building a deck to fit snugly over the hull. The deck was built on the same form as the hull, but the trick was maintaining the shape so that when attached to the hull, it could be glued and sealed. ...

Article - People; by Diana Beechener - 6/9/11

Getting the Show on the Road

The South County Senior ShowStoppers prove that ambition isn’t a young person’s game

The South County Senior ShowStoppers want you to know they’re more than just belly dancers. Shimmying seniors on Social Security may be what gets the variety troupe noticed, but this diverse bunch has more than swiveling hips to recommend them. The troupe has earned the Governor’s Leadership in Aging Award for Performing Arts, recognizing outstanding contributions to quality of life and the field of aging. “People are pleasantly surprised at the level of...

Article - People; by C.T. Shwink - 6/9/11

Following Her Nose for News

Severna Park High journalist wins Scholarship for Scholars award

Call it luck, or call it a nose for news: a journalist’s ability to sense a good story. Whatever you call it, Katie Blunt has it, and it’s taking her to college in North Carolina. The Severna Park High School senior was in class, watching a documentary on the Lost Boys, when a visiting teacher noted that a group of these Sudani refugees lived on his street. That’s when Blunt’s journalism instincts kicked in. She asked the teacher...

Article - News; by Dotty Holcomb Doherty - 6/9/11

For the Birds

Volunteer birders stalked their prey for five years to create the new Atlas of Breeding Birds in Maryland

New osprey heads are popping over edges of nests all over Chesapeake Country. Puffs of tiny brown Carolina wren fledglings erupt from our porches and shrubs, the second brood since April. Soon, beneath our feeders, cardinal babies, whose sprouts of downy feathers remind us of our own bad-hair days, will beg for food from their parents. Evidence of nesting is easy to find when the birds hop about our doorsteps. But most of Maryland and D.C.’s 206 species of breeding...

Article - Creature Feature; by Margaret Tearman - 6/2/11

This Week’s Creature Feature ... Zombie Alert

Preparing for disasters natural and unnatural

The zombies are coming! Well, maybe. Actually, not likely. But just in case, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — the ever diligent government agency that tracks all things vital to our health — has published guidelines so that you’re prepared if the unlikely happens. Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse has been added to the centers Public Health...

Article - Green Living; by Margaret Tearman - 6/2/11

Breeding Local

Dale and Debbie Jones want you to know what you eat, where it came from and how it was raised

What are you eating and where did it come from? That’s Dale and Debbie Jones’ mantra. On Windy Willow Farm in Sunderland, the Joneses raise pastured, grass-fed beef, lamb and goat. Theirs is a relatively new business venture: they’ve been selling meat for only two years. Spend just a while talking with them, and you know what they do is more than a business. It’s a mission. “This was my grandparents’ farm, and it is...

Article - Good Living; by Heather Boughey - 6/2/11

Treasure Hunting

X marks the spot on the Captain John Smith Trail

Once upon a time, seeking treasure meant following the dubious guidance of a hand-drawn map through grave dangers. Scurvy, mutiny, greed and confusion — not to mention blood-thirsty competitors and territory-conscious wild animals — were perils treasure hunters faced in seeking the spot on the map marked by X. The Global Positioning System changed all that. Modern treasure hunters have more in common with Captain Kirk than Captain Sparrow....

Article - Creature Feature; by Margaret Tearman - 5/26/11

This Week’s Creature Feature ... Horseshoe Crabs...

June 1’s full moon begins the season

Love is in the air — and on Bay beaches — as love-struck horseshoe crabs begin their annual mating ritual. These ancient marine arthropods — despite their name, they are not crustaceans — respond to the pull of the moon and spring tides to procreate. Their spawning peaks during evening tides over three to four days centered on the full new moon dates. At peak spawn, the tide lines of prime beaches may be covered in spawning...