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	<title>Urban Birder: reflections, notes, and an occasional rant from Saint Louis, Missouri</title>
	<link>http://www.urbanbirder.net</link>
	<description></description>
	<lastBuildDate>Sat, 13 Feb 2010 17:24:34 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>Great Backyard Bird Count 2010, Day 1</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;m pleased to find that my energy and enthusiam for the things I like in life are returning now that I&#8217;m retired.
Yesterday morning after physical therapy (which I&#8217;m undergoing after having managed to injure the rotator cuff on my pitching arm), I went to Tower Grove Park, where I counted on the east side, just [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.urbanbirder.net/2010/02/13/great-backyard-bird-count-2010-day-1/</link>
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		<title>Heat wave</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The yard
Two weeks ago I wouldn&#8217;t have thought I&#8217;d be watering my hardy native perennials.  Most of the plants seemed to be tolerating the extreme heat well, but when the Monarda fistulosa blooms began turning brown only a few days after blooming, I gave in and turned on the sprinkler.
On June 24, there were [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.urbanbirder.net/2009/06/27/heat-wave/</link>
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		<title>This and that</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;m trying to remember when I birded last.  A month ago, I think.  My two-week migration vacation this year was spent mostly in the back garden, which is developing nicely.
Birds
There&#8217;ve been youngsters in the yard for several weeks&#8212;Common Grackles, American Robins, one Northern Cardinal, European Starlings, House Sparrows, House Finches, Mourning Doves&#8230;
I witnessed [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.urbanbirder.net/2009/06/13/this-and-that/</link>
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		<title>Wrens</title>
		<description><![CDATA[There were two Carolina Wrens foraging in the yard yesterday and again this morning.
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		<link>http://www.urbanbirder.net/2008/11/21/wrens/</link>
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		<title>Death in the Afternoon</title>
		<description><![CDATA[A splash of bright red next to a small clump of contour feathers on the concrete slab yesterday afternoon was evidence of fresh carnage. A closer look at the feathers this morning showed that they had belonged to a pigeon.
I was thinking of taking down the feeders and not scattering seed. I can&#8217;t continue to [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.urbanbirder.net/2008/11/21/death-in-the-afternoon/</link>
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		<title>Sunday&#8217;s Hawk and a Flycatcher</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Hawk
I forgot to mention the sub-adult Cooper&#8217;s Hawk that was in the yard on Sunday. It caught something that was hiding in the thicket where its [&#8230;] conspecific found the House Sparrow two days later. 
The yard squirrels seem to ignore these predators&#8212;not adaptive I think, as a desperate Cooper&#8217;s might opt for larger prey&#8212;some [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.urbanbirder.net/2008/11/19/sundays-hawk-and-a-flycatcher/</link>
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		<title>Warbler Update</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I was looking through past posts and saw that on September 24, 2007, I wrote about a Magnolia Warbler (female) I had seen in the yard, &#8220;That’s the yard’s fourth warbler species (the others are Tennessee, Mourning, and Common Yellowthroat).&#8221; On October 9, 2007, I recorded one Orange-crowned and one Nashville Warbler in the yard. [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.urbanbirder.net/2008/11/18/warbler-update/</link>
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		<title>Hawks Have to Eat, Too: Postscript</title>
		<description><![CDATA[A good reminder, though not necessarily a pleasant one, that nature isn&#8217;t sweet, gentle, serene, just, or romantic&#8212;or for the squeamish. Which is something country people have always known.
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		<link>http://www.urbanbirder.net/2008/11/18/hawks-have-to-eat-too-postscript/</link>
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		<title>Hawks Have to Eat, Too</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The day ended early, and as badly as can be imagined, for one of the yard&#8217;s House Sparrows.
Two Cooper&#8217;s Hawks, a sub-adult and a juvenile, have been visiting the yard. This morning the juvenile flew in at a little past 7:00. It spent a few minutes perched on the north fence and then dropped into [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.urbanbirder.net/2008/11/18/hawks-have-to-eat-too/</link>
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		<title>Winter, at Last</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Reasons for Happiness
They are too many to count, but two recent ones stand out:
Though I fully expect to be disappointed in him once he&#8217;s in office, I was elated at Obama&#8217;s election. There&#8217;s at least hope now that the county will follow a more environmentally responsible path.

On November 7, I saw a Pied-billed Grebe in [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.urbanbirder.net/2008/11/15/winter-at-last/</link>
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