Since April, 1,212 birds have been rescued from the filth spilling out of the Deep Water Horizon rig in the Gulf oil spill. Another 2,188 birds were found dead. Of the survivors, 511 have been released. Over one-third of the birds rescued survived the big spill. But how long will they survive? To answer that question, scientists need help. Maybe even your help — though rescued birds aren’t expected to flock to Chesapeake Country. Nearing the end of its rehabilitation, each...

  Every year, I am asked if the peaches and nectarines that I sell are grown organically. The answer is no. We cannot grow stone fruit crops such as peaches, plums, nectarines and cherries without having to use both insecticides and fungicides. All of these crops are extremely susceptible to brown rot, rusts and insect damage from beetles, curculio, aphids, mites, stink bugs, borers, etc. At present there are no organic or biological controls for the insects that attack these crops. Many...

  Wonders happen in water. Capture water in a pool, and creatures can’t resist it.  We gather in the liquid, and make magic. Here’s what I mean. Consider that the narrator and title character in the novel Life of Pi, named Piscine for swimming pool in French, devotes pages to second-hand elegies to the early 20th century swimming pools of Paris — despite sanitation far beneath the standards of modern pools. Consider that the Druid Hill and Patterson Park swimming...

  It had been way too many days since I had caught a rockfish, and I was ready. But late that afternoon, the light was beginning to fail, and my surface plug had gone untouched cast after cast.  My hopes had been pinned on a rumor that there were good fish to be had around this remote pile of boulders. Now it looked like it was just not going to happen for me, again. Getting desperate, I changed my lure color. Perhaps in the dim, fading light of day, black would be a better choice....