Dear Bay Weekly: Constellation Energy, the parent company of BGE, has indicated that because more taxpayer dollars were not offered in loan guarantees or rebates, it will quit the effort to build a third nuclear reactor at the current Calvert Cliffs generation site. Last week Rep. Steny Hoyer said he will attempt to restart the failed process. If he fails, Southern Maryland will apparently lose thousands of temporary construction jobs that would have been needed for the project. Yet we will be...

Fall is the time for raptor migration. For a few days after a cold front, when the wind comes from the west or north, hawks, eagles and falcons pass overhead in large numbers. It could be that cooler temperatures stimulate a response that makes the birds move.  Places to visit: Fort Smallwood Park, Pasadena; Sandy Point State Park, Annapolis. Classes and field trips to see and identify hawks: The Audubon Naturalist Society, www.audubonnaturalist.org. Books: Hawks in Flight by...

Which came first, the acorn or the squirrel?  Whichever you prefer, both will be doing exceptionally well this year as acorns fill the forest floor and squirrels’ stomachs. For both species, 2010 is a mast year. “The term mast year refers to a year with an abundant mast crop, mast being the generic term for the fruits of forest trees,” explains Kenneth Jolly of Maryland Department of Natural Resources’ Forest Service. These years mostly depend on climatic variations...

We hear a lot these days about relationships. There’s the romantic kind, and then there are other kinds: husband/wife, brother/sister, parent/offspring as well as the illicit kind, among others, some of which migrate from one form to another. In Bay Theatre’s fine new production, Lips Together, Teeth Apart (we’ll discuss the title later; stick with me), we see relationships that are stretched to the breaking point. Two married couples are spending a holiday weekend at a beach...