Bird

Yankees’ Luke Voit-Greg Bird battle will go into the season

JUPITER, Fla. — No player needs spring training to be five weeks rather than six more than Greg Bird.

He just can’t seem to get out of Dodge — or the Grapefruit League — without incurring a late-March injury. Bird was hit on his right elbow Wednesday, joking afterward that somehow with him the ball always misses the protective pad.

No laughs Thursday when he reported he was still aching. Bird was removed from the lineup against the Cardinals. He returned to Tampa for X-rays and a CT scan. Aaron Boone said both came back negative. The Yankees manager thinks Bird could play as early as Saturday and that this does not imperil his making the Opening Day roster.

But betting on Bird’s health has been a bad play. As Brian Cashman noted, “In Bird’s case most of his service time has been on the disabled list.” The general manager was illustrating that neither Bird nor Luke Voit has a full season of major league success. Bird had the great finish to 2015, Voit the breakout late last season.

Both have impressed this spring training and the Yankees project high ceilings for both. Cashman, though, said, “I don’t think you can declare an absolute on both of them. We believe both of them are [above-average performers]. But that is what you play the games for. You have to stay healthy and continue to perform.”

Since Mark Teixeira’s plummeting final year in 2016, first base has been a black hole for the Yankees. From the beginning of 2016 through the July 31 trade deadline last year, the Yanks had a .713 OPS from their first baseman. Only the Angels (.709) have been worse.

Remember 2016 when Teixeira wobbled and the Yanks tried Dustin Ackley, Rob Refsnyder and even briefly Ike Davis? How about 2017 and Chris Carter, Chase Headley and Garrett Cooper? Tyler Austin and Neil Walker took the position of Gehrig and Mattingly for a whirl last season.

Throughout it all Bird failed to stay healthy or productive enough to make the job his. Voit was obtained from the Cardinals last July 29 in what seemed a minor depth move with Bird again hurt. Voit had two minor league stints before hitting two homers for the Yankees on Aug. 24. He had 14 from there until the end of the season, only NL MVP Christian Yelich (15) hit more.

That made Voit the man to beat for the job this spring. He has not been beaten. Voit has four homers and a 1.053 OPS. But Bird sure has pushed. He has three homers a 1.131 OPS, and 11 walks to 10 strikeouts, his .490 on-base percentage a reminder of the hitting eye that is among the strongest reasons the Yankees have stayed patient through his long injury absences.

“It is nice that both are having success and allowing us to dream,” Cashman said. “It is a position that has underperformed for us the past few years because we placed bets on guys since Tex retired that have not worked out, because of injuries mainly. When the dust settles, I feel going in with these two guys and the ceilings that we have a chance to be something special. I think that position has a chance to be taken care of, get out of the way and by doing so we won’t have to worry about first. It has been a problem the last few years. Voit came in last year and solved the problem significantly. Hopefully that is who he is and Bird is who we think he is and when the dust settles, boom.”

And the battle for the position will stretch into the season. With Aaron Hicks to begin on the injured list and not eligible to return before the seventh game, Brett Gardner will mainly play center, Giancarlo Stanton left and Bird and Voit will share first base and DH.

Bird’s lefty bat early should be valuable with the switch-hitting Hicks and lefty-swinging Didi Gregorius both out, leaving Gardner as the lone lefty-hitting regular.

But he will have to be more than promise. Bird must remain healthy, must carry over to the season his penchant for good spring stats.

Cashman said he still envisions Bird as having a “high on-base percentage with 25-plus homers.” If that player shows up in April and Voit carries over late 2018 to early 2019 the Yanks will have tabled a tough choice, but ultimately will have to make it. Because Cashman said at full strength the plan is still to carry one first baseman.

“I don’t know that anyone has won it or lost [the first-base job],” Boone said. “Both guys are good players in my mind. At a certain point we may be up against making a very difficult decision and that is part of sports. When you have a lot of good players like we do you have to make difficult, hard decisions, that is part of it.”

02

Greg Bird's injury history always a concern for Yankees

JUPITER, Fla.

For a minute there, it looked as if Greg Bird was going to get to Opening Day before an X-ray room.

No such luck.

When the Yankees’ lineup card was posted Thursday, Bird’s name was conspicuously absent although he had been scheduled to play against St. Louis. Before long, Aaron Boone informed us that he had sent Bird back to Tampa because of stiffness in his right elbow area, which was struck a day earlier by a pitch from the Astros’ Wade Miley.

The good news? The X-rays and CT scan were negative, so Bird apparently is fine to resume spring training once the swelling goes down, which could take another day in Boone’s estimation.

“I don’t want to mess with his mechanics,” Boone said.

So the Yankees seemingly dodged a bullet, as well as sidestepped Bird’s uncanny knack for catching bad breaks. While it’s hardly unusual to be hit in the arm, the pitch somehow got around the plastic-reinforced padding Bird wears to protect that very spot.

Frankly, we’ve been conditioned to expect the worst whenever Bird is associated with aches and pains. After taking over for the injured Mark Teixeira in 2015 and going on an 11-homers-in-46-games binge that Brian Cashman ironically described Thursday as “Luke Voit-like,” he played a total of 130 games in the next three seasons and had a slash line of .196/.287/.399.

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During that time, Bird missed all of 2016 because of shoulder surgery, then had the next two years chopped up by a pair of ankle operations. He arrived for this spring training feeling stronger, thanks to packing on 20 pounds, but now he’s in competition with the incumbent Voit.

The situation has been a win-win for the Yankees, as Bird and Voit have raked in the Grapefruit League. Rather than having to demote one, which originally seemed likely, the Yankees should be able to take both of them north for Opening Day — as long as they can stay upright into next week. (Because of Aaron Hicks’ back injury, Giancarlo Stanton will see more action in leftfield and the DH spot will be open for Bird or Voit.)

Cashman referred to their neck-and-neck competition as akin to a heavyweight boxing match, but there won’t really be a loser until the Yankees need to make room for Hicks, presumably around April 5.

Bird has the slight overall edge, hitting .333 (13-for-39) with a 1.131 OPS compared with Voit’s .316 (12-for-38) and 1.053. But Voit has four homers and 11 RBIs and Bird has three and eight. Bird is the better defender, and as a lefthanded hitter, a better complement to a righty-heavy lineup.

But it’s only natural for Cashman to have trust issues with Bird, simply because he’s been burned by him so many times.

That’s why the GM didn’t hesitate to say that it was Voit’s job to lose coming into spring training, and still needs to see Bird continue to perform once the regular season begins.

“He looks like the guy that we remember seeing from not too long ago,” Cashman said. “And if that’s the case, then kudos to us for having the patience to wait on it. But at the same time, it doesn’t guarantee anything. It’s nice to be able to talk that he looks really good, but you’ve got to be able to deploy it on a consistent basis.”

Fair or not, Bird’s plunking Wednesday did stir up another round of injury-prone commentary, just because it’s such a large part of his resume. Some guys get tagged with that reputation, and when you’re on the field as little as Bird has been, the label tends to stick. He understands that, and as Cashman mentioned, the Yankees have been holding out hope that Bird can get past it this year.

Trading for Voit last July was the hedge against Bird’s medical chart, but then he put a stranglehold on the position by slamming 14 homers in a span of 114 at-bats in his last 32 games. All these months later, the Yankees now have two great candidates for first base after previously having none. Knock on wood.

“I think they’re both capable major-leaguers,” Cashman said. “That’s what it appears to be, that’s what their belief is. Our belief is the same. But has anybody proved it over an extended period of time yet? No.

“Voit came in last year and solved the problem significantly for us. That was important. Hopefully that’s who he is, and hopefully Bird can be who we think he is, and when the dust settles — boom.”

Only a few more days in Florida to get through.

By David Lennon @DPLennon

David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.

03

What’s next for Yankees’ Greg Bird, who was scratched Thursday due to elbow soreness

JUPITER, Fla. — There are players who are more prone to getting hurt than others, Yankees manager Aaron Boone admitted Thursday before a spring training game against the St. Louis Cardinals. He was talking in general, not about often-injured first baseman Greg Bird, who was scratched from the starting lineup with a sore elbow and returned to Tampa instead of playing the finale of a two-day East Coast of Florida road trip.

“There are things that are unavoidable, but I think that guys have had a track record of durability and there’s a part of that that’s probably a little bit of a skill,” Boone said.

Bird was blessed with a pretty left-handed swing and a ton of power.

The durability trait hasn’t been part of his DNA.

After missing all of 2016 recovering from shoulder surgery and then big chunks of 2017 and 2018 due to surgeries on the same foot, Bird now is day-to-day with swelling and stiffness in his right elbow stemming from a hit by pitch Wednesday … a pitch that banged off his elbow guard, not his elbow.

Go figure.

“He should be all right,” Boone said.

That’s the hope, but the Yankees felt the same way on March 1 when Aaron Hicks was scratched from a game due to back soreness. The Yankees’ starting center fielder hasn’t played since and will begin the season on the Injured List.

Bird departed Jupiter for Tampa ahead of the Yankees’ team bus to get a precautionary X-ray.

“He could have played today, but he is swollen, so let’s get him back and get him checked out,” GM Brian Cashman said. “And if he needs a few days, so be it.”

Bird doesn’t have much time to get over this because the Yankees’ March 28 season opener is just a week away.

It always seems to be something with Bird, who hasn’t done much since his breakout half-rookie season in 2016 when he hit 11 homers in 46 games filling in for injured star first baseman Mark Teixeira.

Why Yankees’ Clint Frazier isn’t sweating his .140 Grapefruit League average

New York Yankees outfielder Clint Frazier has struggled this spring and likely will begin 2019 in Triple-A.

His strong Grapefruit League showing this year has been a revival similar to the one that he had in the spring of 2017, but that led into his first foot surgery. This one had him in a tooth-and-nail fight with 2018 late-season find Luke Voit for the starting first base job, and until Hicks’ injury, the loser was going to be optioned to Triple-A.

Now the plan is for Bird and Voit to open the season on the 25-man roster with one starting at first and the other playing DH until Hicks makes his expected return a week or two into the season.

Then it’ll be very-tough decision time for the Yankees because both have have great springs. Bird is hitting .333 with three homers and eight RBI over 39 at-bats in 17 games, while Voit is batting .316 with four homers and 11 RBI over 38 at-bats in 14 games.

“I do believe they both are major leaguers, but I also recognize that Voit’s done it for two months and Bird really hasn’t done it for a full year,” Cashman said. “Most of (Bird’s) service time seems to be coming from the disabled list on the major league side.

"If we’re flying on all cylinders and everybody’s healthy, do I look forward to being in that room and sending somebody out to Triple-A and waiting in the wings? It’s not something you ever look forward to when you’re (optioning) someone that could be manning the position on an everyday basis at this level.”

Of course, this elbow issue first needs to be a non-factor for Bird, and considering his track record …

“I got hurt a lot in my career,” Boone said. “I don’t think it was because I wasn’t tough or whatever. I got serious injuries that happened to me. I’m sure some guys are built a little more like a Ford truck. Some guys tend to break. … I’m not chalking this (Bird elbow issue) up to adding to the list. He came in (Thursday) and probably could have played, and it was me saying, ‘Go home and ice down.'

“I don’t want to mess with his mechanics more than anything. But he should be all right.”

Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

WHAS holds shorebird ID class and walk

No result found, try new keyword!Attendees are asked to use the lower level ... favorite group of birds, notes the release, and he spends many weekends on the Washington Coast. Space is limited for the class and walk.

02

Bears probably aren’t ready to raid your bird feeder (and answers to other spring garden questions)

I am always amazed a column of answers to questions begets more questions. I know that these questions are also a result of days getting so much longer as we quickly recover from setting the clocks ahead an hour. I will answer some questions below, but the one question I have for all of us is why don’t we make the Legislature do away with daylight saving time? Write and call your reps today! Gardeners get things done.

OK. First, how much longer can we keep feeding birds without fear of attracting bears?

I am pretty sure area bears can wake up anytime and wander a bit even in the middle of winter, but they normally they go back into hibernation. As for when they wake up for good in spring, I understand it is mostly influenced by their food needs. They need stuff that will clear them out of any residual winter digestion, yet hold them over until the moose calves appear.

Believe it or not, this diet consists of grasses and sedges. By my calculation, we have a few more weeks until anything resembling green grasses and sedges become available, though nights are now generally above freezing. My guess is your average bear will probably not be a problem for a couple of weeks yet. Still, I would start using up the seed you have in your feeders and most definitely store what isn’t in a safer place than you might during the winter months. Finally, do keep an eye out for obvious signs of bears.

Next, how do you train a fuchsia plant to grow like a tree instead of a bush?

A tree-like plant in fuchsia talk is called a “standard,” A standard is actually very easy to create. All you need is a young fuchsia. It does take a while, however, so you will also need patience. As the new plant grows up, you will need to secure it to a tomato stake or similar support. What makes a bushy fuchsia plant is the pinching of the growing tips. This causes them to branch. If you don’t pinch the tip, however, your plant will remain just one stem.

To start, remove all but the top four to six leaves (or let the plant develop that many) from a first-season plant. Then let the plant keep growing. Remove lower side leaves if they appear on the naked stalk, Over the course of the early season, you will get a tall plant. It is as simple as that. At the point it has reached the size you desire, pinch your fuchsia’s top growth once or twice to create a canopy. Voila, a fuchsia tree, aka a standard. You can buy or make a wire support for the top branches to attach to your vertical support. And, of course, you can buy an already developed standard, too. They will grow for years as long as you continue to prune them.

When amaryllis finish blooming, it’s time for the annual question: what to do next?

The answer is simple. Let your plant continue to grow after it finishes blooming. The goal is to have it add leaves so that they and the existing ones will nourish the bulb. In the fall bring it inside and let it go dormant for eight weeks or so. Cut back the flower stems. There is no need to have the plant waste energy trying to develop seeds. You can grow your plant outdoors during the summer either on a deck or in an outdoor greenhouse or keep it indoors.

Finally, how does one determine which plants need to be pinched?

Generally, plants with symmetrical arrangements of leaves that grow directly opposite each other are “pinchable.” Cut off the growing tip and two appear in its place. This is because in lots of plants, there is a hormone in the tip that prevents branching. When you pinch the tip off, the hormone is no longer able to do so. Those plants that have alternating leaves as you go up the stem should not be pinched as the main impact is to simply slow the plant’s growth.

Jeff’s garden calendar for the week of March 22

Sure cure for spring fever: The annual master gardener conference is open to all gardeners, and all gardeners would be smart to take advantage of this. This year’s title is "Urban gardening in the Last Frontier.” Don’t miss this event. It’s April 6 at the Lucy Cuddy center. There will be an auction, market, and speakers, featuring my friend and fellow author Robert Kourik, who really knows his roots. You will cure your fever. Registration and fee with an early discount: alaskamastergardeners.org/conference.html

Spruce beetles in landscape trees: Got questions? Then get 'em answered, and learn what there is to know and what to do. Jessie Moan, integrated pest management tech, will give a much-needed class in Anchorage. Free to all. 6-7:30 p.m. Tuesday April 2 at Anchorage Outreach Center, Loussac Library, fourth floor.

Seeds to start: Lobelia (needs 20 days to germinate; seeds need light, so don’t cover), snapdragons (10 days to germinate; needs light and cool temperatures) carnation (2 days to germinate), verbena (20 days to germinate), pelargonium

Herbs to start: Lavender, lovage, lemon balm

Corms to start: Glads, unless you want to plant them directly

Tubers to start: Dahlia, yacon

03

These Bird Songs Are Disappearing From Nature, So This Artist Captured Them In A Sound Installation

The song of the Kauaʻi ʻōʻō, a bird native to Hawaii, is a delicate, flute-like melody. If you listen closely, you can hear a short succession of chirps gliding playfully from lower to higher tones. The Kauaʻi ʻōʻō was last seen on the island of Kaua’i in 1987. Its call, now archived as a field recording, is no longer heard in the wild. Yet this weekend, the Kauaʻi ʻōʻō and 11 other critically endangered or extinct creatures will be heard in "Requiem," a sound installation at the Boston Nature Center in Mattapan.

It combines the noises of birds and frogs, whose sounds have been sourced from field recordings at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and The Amphibian Foundation in Atlanta. "Requiem," which has traveled from Maine to Boston and back again, is a purely auditory experience.

Staged in a large, empty room with four speakers, guests will hear the sounds of 10 birds and two frogs continuously looping on an audio file. The recording begins with one or two animals noises, and slowly builds to a mild cacophony of tweets, chirps, whoops and wood-peckings. Throughout the piece, familiar noises fade out, and new calls are introduced, overlapping and punctuating each other without rhyme or reason.

“It’s entirely unpredictable,” says Steve Norton, the Maine-based artist and musician who created the installation. “Sometimes it gets very dense and then also falls silent." Norton says these pauses in the audio can surprise listeners. “There have been occasions where people have said, ‘Is it over?’ It’s theoretically never over. It could run until the power goes out.”

To the average Massachusetts resident, the animal calls in "Requiem" might sound out of place. This is no walk through the Middlesex Fells or Blue Hills Reservation. Two species in the exhibit, the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker and the Bachman’s Warbler, were native to the southeastern U.S and Cuba. Four species, including the Kauaʻi ʻōʻō, were found in Hawaii. The rest are from Panama, Guam, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Mexico. Yet for Norton, his love of birds and frogs began at home.

Throughout his childhood, Norton was surrounded by nature, and he often observed animals from the back porch of his childhood home in Framingham, which neighbored a stretch of woods.

In one memory, Norton recalls his mother imitating the call of the Tufted Titmouse, and coaxing the bird from the forest onto the family’s bird feeder. “I grew up as a birder,” he says. “When I was a young kid I went out and caught frogs and kept them in a pond in my backyard. They’re creatures that I have a strong affinity for. Therefore, I think these sounds are some of the most beautiful sounds on earth.”

Musician Steve Norton. (Courtesy Amy Pierce)

As an adult, Norton settled in Medford and became a musician, while working a day job as a software engineer. His music centered around performance and improvisation, but in 2009, he moved his practice outside and began experimenting with field recordings.

Taking a handheld recorder he used to tape his music performances, Norton captured sounds of his immediate surroundings. “Initially I was wandering around my neighborhood in West Medford recording the sounds of my footsteps, the bus and the train,” he says. “After a while I started becoming more interested in trying to get the sounds of what we call nature.”

In 2016, Norton decided to leave his day job, and pursue an MFA degree at the University of Maine. At his program, Norton looked for ways to combine his passion for audio with his interest in the natural world. He began reading about extinction, and researching archival recordings of extinct animals while taking an installation class. Norton started working on his sound installation piece in February 2018, and premiered "Requiem" at the University of Maine in May of that year.

After listening to "Requiem," Norton hopes visitors will remember that “all of these species went extinct because of things that we [humans] did.” In an informational booklet that is given to visitors, people can read about the fate of each recorded animal. From habitat loss and destruction of food sources to air pollution and the degradation of rainforests, the species in Norton’s exhibit became endangered because of changes in their environment. “In many cases it’s a byproduct of us wanting to pave over all kinds of tracts of land so we can drive fast, or it’s agriculture taking habitat away from wild spaces,” says Norton.

Adam Leiterman, a teacher naturalist at the Boston Nature Center, helped bring the installation to Mattapan’s bird sanctuary. Leiterman hopes the exhibit will remind visitors of how integral bird calls are to society. Our soundscape — the natural noises and sounds that make up our environment — is irrevocably altered when certain bird species become extinct.

“As the natural world faces challenges,” says Leiterman, “we are losing species and ecosystems are being diminished, that soundscape is changing. Once it changes, no matter how badly we feel or how much we want to help, we can’t ever change it back."

For Norton, "Requiem" represents “an old, long-standing musical form, it’s based on the liturgy for the dead and old church music.” An ode to the species we no longer hear in the wild, “it’s a lamentation of sorts,” he says.

"Requiem" opens at Mass Audubon's Boston Nature Center in Mattapan on March 16 at 3 p.m., and runs through March 23 during the center's normal business hours. The exhibit is free and open to the public. On March 16, 20 and 23, artist Steve Norton will be giving presentations about his work. "Requiem" coincides with the Boston Nature Center's Bird Week, which includes additional programming on bird conservation.

AP PHOTOS: Remembering the Exxon Valdez oil spill

It was just after midnight on March 24, 1989, when an Exxon Shipping Co. tanker ran aground outside the town of Valdez, Alaska, spewing millions of gallons of thick, toxic crude oil into the pristine Prince William Sound.

The world watched the aftermath unfold: scores of herring, sea otters and birds soaked in oil, and hundreds of miles of shoreline polluted. Commercial fishermen in the area saw their careers hit bottom.

It's been 30 years since the disaster, at the time the largest oil spill in U.S. history. Only the 2010 Deep Water Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has eclipsed it.

The 986-foot (300-meter) Exxon Valdez tanker was bound for California when it struck Alaska's Bligh Reef at 12:04 a.m. It spilled 11 million gallons (42 million liters) of crude oil, which storms and currents smeared across 1,300 miles (2,092 million kilometers) of shoreline.

The oil also extensively fouled spawning habitat in Prince William Sound for herring and pink salmon, two of its most important commercial fish species.

Fishermen and others affected by the spill dealt with ruined livelihoods, broken marriages and suicides. Exxon compensation checks, minus what fishermen earned on spill work, arrived too late for many.

Most of the affected species have recovered, but the spill led to wide-scale changes in the oil industry. Today, North Slope oil must be transported in double-hull tankers, which must be escorted by two tugs. Radar monitors the vessel's position as well as that of icebergs.

02

Why do we watch birds? Let me count the ways

Jim Wright, Special to NorthJersey.com Published 6:00 a.m. ET March 21, 2019

Spring means that new batches of ducklings are just down the road. (Photo: COURTESY OF JIM WRIGHT)

Earlier this month I gave a talk titled “Backyard Bergen Birds” to the Demarest Garden Club.

While I was putting the presentation together, I came up with all sorts of cool photos and information about the birds that visit our yards here in North Jersey. I even included a section on a variety of bird feeders that you can use to attract everything from hummingbirds to cardinals.

But something was missing, and I couldn’t think of what. The morning of the talk, it occurred to me: I had not addressed the most important question: Why do we watch birds in the first place?

Then I remembered an hour-long, 2012 HBO documentary called “Birders: The Central Park Effect.”

Neighborly eastern phoebes will be arriving any day, with a nest and babies soon to follow. (Photo: COURTESY OF JIM WRIGHT)

The film charmingly listed dozens of urban birds as the stars of the show, but it was the segments with some of the park’s regular birders that made the film meaningful.

Best-selling novelist Jonathan Franzen, for instance, called birding “one of the rare experiences in an adult’s life where you find the world more magical instead of less.” 

 And Starr Saphir, the grand dame of Central Park birders, added a poignant dimension, describing how birding helped her cope with terminal breast cancer. (She would die 8 months later.)   

But what stuck in my head was a segment in which birder Chris Cooper described what he called “the seven pleasures of birding”:

1. “The beauty of the birds.”

2. “The joy of being in a natural setting.”

3. “The joy of scientific discovery.”

4. “The joys of hunting without the bloodshed. You’ve got to kind of stalk the bird very often without killing the bird.”

 5.  “The joy of puzzle-solving” (trying to figure out what kind of bird it is).

 6.  “The joy of collecting” (keeping lists of what you see). “When you get a new bird, it’s one more you can add to the collection,” says Cooper.

 7.  “The Unicorn Effect” (the joy of finally seeing in real life a bird you’ve only seen in books).

Now that spring is here again, I thought this would be a perfect time to expand that list.

After all, birds of all sizes are the perfect gateway into nature — a gateway as near as the bird feeders in our backyards. Entering that gateway often provides an appreciation and understanding of the natural beauty that’s under our noses if only we take the time to look.  

What’s more, birding is a great distraction. When you have a lot on your mind, birding is a great way to pack up all your cares and woes — if only for a few minutes. This winter, I slipped on a hidden patch of ice and broke five ribs. I couldn’t do much for a month, but I could look out the window and enjoy the birds.

As it happens, spring is the perfect time to watch birds. In a column six years ago, I observed: “Nothing is quite as rewarding as seeing familiar birds for a whole new season. They bring memories of seasons past and the promise of seasons to some. The new arrivals are even more exciting because they herald the imminent warbler and shorebird migration, warmer and longer days, and a whole new generation of hatchlings.”

As Emily Dickinson famously wrote: “Hope is a thing with feathers.”

Why do you watch birds? Let me know at the following email address.

The Bird-watcher column appears every other Thursday. Email Jim at celeryfarm@gmail.com.

More North Jersey news

Birdwatching: Saying goodbye to old backyard bird feeder

Birdwatching: How do you talk about pileated woodpeckers?

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03

Thursday Bird Droppings: Where Opening Day is one week away

Hello, friends.

There are seven days remaining until the next Orioles game that counts. One week from today, there will be real baseball! If we want to get technical, there was already real baseball yesterday and earlier this morning when the Mariners and Athletics played regular season games in Japan, but since that baseball didn’t involve the Orioles, it doesn’t matter to me. The only Opening Day that counts is the one where the O’s play.

One bit of fun for the O’s thanks to those Tokyo games is that they will spend the first eight days of the regular season tied for a wild card spot, since their 0-0 record is equal to 13 other AL teams.

Between now and the real start of the season, there’s still a scheduled six exhibition games, including one at 1:05 this afternoon, when the O’s travel to the spring home of the Pirates. This game will be broadcast online only via either Orioles.com or the MLB At Bat app. David Hess is scheduled to start for the O’s. Josh Rogers, Tanner Scott, and Mychal Givens are also expected to pitch.

After a defeat at the hands of the Red Sox last night, the Orioles are 12-12-2 in their Grapefruit League schedule. They lost, 6-4. Dylan Bundy was good in 5.1 innings. Cedric Mullins and Dwight Smith Jr. each homered, but Scott was bad and Jimmy Yacabonis was worse and the O’s blew a lead.

There’s still a good bit of uncertainty in who is going to fill out the Orioles roster. Some of that is because of health. Austin Wynns seems like he won’t be ready for Opening Day. What about Renato Nunez, who’s now got bicep tightness? Is Mark Trumbo’s rehab, where he’s batting twice per game he plays and only DHing far enough along to put him on the opening roster?

This is outside of any considerations for who has won any of the various battles in camp, which also must be resolved over the next week. Bit by bit, things are falling into place. They fell a bit more into place yesterday when the O’s decided to grant Alcides Escobar his release as his opt-out arrived. The next opt-out decision comes tomorrow with catcher Jesus Sucre. His chances are probably a little better due to Wynns’s health.

Mike Mussina was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame 58 days ago. The Orioles have not yet announced any plans to retire his jersey or add his statue to Camden Yards.

Around the blogO’sphere

How the Orioles united Mike Elias, Sig Mejdal, and Brandon Hyde to make over club (Baltimore Sun)This season will not be very much fun for O’s fans, but reading about the new brain trust continues to make me feel better about the future.

A look at how data and analytics have come to the O’s farm system (Steve Melewski)Another reminder that everyone responsible for things being the way they were before should have probably lost their jobs a lot sooner than they did.

Rebuilding Orioles won’t be burdened by high expectations (Washington Post)That’s a polite way of putting it.

Orioles release infielder Escobar (Orioles.com)“I think rookies break through all the time,” Hyde said. “We want to continue giving them opportunities.” That’s what this season should be all about. No retreads!

Harvey getting good results in minor league camp (School of Roch)I don’t have it in me any more to tell myself that this year will be the year for Hunter Harvey. I hope that everything comes together for him nonetheless.

Five observations about Orioles spring training (Baltimore Baseball)Number five is alive! Rich Dubroff lays out the concern about the starting rotation, and offers the simultaneously optimistic and pessimistic view that the rotation will probably look a lot different in June.

MLBPA chief Tony Clark says union is ‘keeping an eye’ on Orioles rebuilding project (Baltimore Sun)Yesterday was the O’s day to have union meetings. Although the headline makes it sound ominous, the director Clark doesn’t seem too upset about anything to do with the O’s specifically, at least not for now.

Birthdays and anniversaries

One year ago today, the Orioles signed Alex Cobb to a four-year contract. Year one did not go very well.

There is one current Oriole with a birthday today: Happy 27th to Jimmy Yacabonis. Maybe the Orioles will give him a belated present by putting him on the MLB roster in a few days.

The only former Oriole with a birthday today is 1972-75 designated hitter Tommy Davis, who will be celebrating his 80th birthday today. Happy birthday to him.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you as well! Your birthday buddies for today include: Song dynasty founder Emperor Taizu (927), composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685), composer Modest Mussorgsky (1839), actor Timothy Dalton (1946), philosopher Slavoj Zizek (1949), Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu (1959), and actress Rosie O’Donnell (1962).

On this day in history...

In 1800, the newly-elected pope, Pius VII, had to be crowned in Venice rather than Rome, with a papal tiara made of papier-mache. Napoleon’s French had stolen the regular tiara while capturing the previous pope, Pius VI, four years before.

In 1925, the state of Tennessee passed the Butler Act, which forbade the teaching of evolution. Teacher John T. Scopes later ran afoul of this law, leading to a famous trial.

In 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led his third march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Unlike the prior two marches, this one successfully reached Montgomery, in part because President Lyndon Johnson ordered the National Guard to protect the marchers from state and local law enforcement.

In 1980, President Carter announced that the USA would be boycotting the upcoming Summer Olympics in Moscow in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

**

And that’s the way it is in Birdland on March 21 - or at least, unless something happens later today down in Florida. Have a safe Thursday.

The 16 Best Indoor Trees for Every Kind of Plant Parent

PHOTO: Alyssa Rosenheck; DESIGN: Leanne Ford Interiors

Whether you have a flair for the dramatic or you've graduated beyond the humble house plant, indoor trees are going to fit right in with your interiors. Climbing high up to the ceiling with vibrant leaves, indoor trees make a gorgeous statement while also providing some functional qualities, like promoting a positive mood, purifying the air, and making you feel a little more connected to nature. Learn about the best indoor trees and plus how to care for them below, and then order your favorite(s) to fit your lifestyle needs.

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1 Birds of Paradise

Bird of Paradise's large lush leaves bring a touch of the tropics and make a statement anywhere they go. We love the symmetry they create in this Leanne Ford-designed living room. But that's not to say you can take them anywhere. Indeed, Birds of Paradise trees need bright sunlight and lots of humidity, so make sure you'll be able to accommodate them accordingly.

Chelsea Garden Center Bird of Paradise Large ($255) BUY NOW

2 Fiddle Leaf Fig

The Fiddle Leaf Fig Tree definitely wins the popularity contest as far as design favorites. They look great with pretty much any interior design scheme, from bohemian to modern spaces like this one designed by Hecker Guthrie. Fig trees don't like over moist soil or over dry (though airing on the moister side is better), so you could call them the Goldi Locks of indoor trees. They like filtered sun, and in an ideal situation, they can live for 25 to 50 years. If it's look a little sickly, you can revive it by chopping of the top of it's trunk—it will start sprouting anew.

Chelsea Garden Center Ficus Lyrata Large ($285) BUY NOW

3 Madagascar Dragon Tree

Madagascar Dragon Trees are some of the best indoor trees due to their low maintenance needs and charming good looks, as proven in this living room by Regan Baker Design. They can grow up to eight feet tall in ten years, if you take good care of them. The good news is that's easy to do: They thriving in room temperature environments and don't need a lot of direct sunlight (PSA: direct sunlight can actually burn the leaves).

Madagascar Dragon Tree ($29) BUY NOW

4 Weeping Fig

Say hello to the Fiddle Leaf Fig Trees far less fussy cousin, the Weeping Fig. This type of ficus likes bright, indirect sunlight (though a touch of direct light shouldn't hurt them), rich and fast-draining soil, and a healthy dose of humidity. If you love to decorate with neutrals take note. Designer Leanne Ford introduces color with a large indoor tree in this living room.

Hirt's Garden Weeping Fig Tree ($24) BUY NOW

5 Parlor Palm

These Victorian favorites are back (though they never really went away). Parlor palms are the perfect accent decor in bathroom corners, like in this one designed by 2LG Studio, which is great since they do well in high-moisture, medium-light areas. They also help clean the air, another thing that makes them good candidates for the room you clean up in. But make sure you regularly check the health of their soil and water them weekly, as they can get root-rot when there's not a good drainage system in place.

The Sill Parlor Palm ($8) BUY NOW

6 Rubber Tree

If you worry you might be a neglectful plant parent, the rubber tree is your match. In fact, they like to keep to themselves. Rubber trees really just need to be watered weekly and have access to medium or bright light to be happy. You won't have to worry about how humid it is or isn't it in your home, either. These indoor trees are laidback and up for whatever, humidity-wise.

The Sill Burgundy Rubber Tree ($16) BUY NOW

7 European Olive Tree

European Olive Trees need a lot of sunlight, so you may need to move them outside during the summer and warmer months in order for them to survive inside (they can be great inside for short periods of time if intermittently brought outside). Perched in a sunny corner like this loft designed by Alexander DB, they really liven up a space. Keep in mind that they need good drainage.

Birch Lane Olive Tree ($178) BUY NOW

8 The Yukka

Sharp, interesting, unique-looking, the Yukka tree is also wonderfully easy to care for. Their stems are thick, woody, and beautiful, making every part of this indoor a lovely addition to your interiors. They don't need as much water a most indoor plants, either.

Costa Farms Yucca Cane ($34) BUY NOW

9 Citrus Tree

Here's the thing: Citrus trees are arguably the prettiest and most functional house plants, but they're also so, so high-maintenance. A lemon tree needs humidity to survive, which can make them finicky. You could use a humidifier to make it a more opportune climate, but that brings in a whole host of other issues that come with humidity. They also need a ton of water. Like tons, and tons, and tons. And then tons, and tons, and tons of sunlight. But they're pretty! So why not give it a go? They could work in a sunny kitchen or sunroom.

Williams Sonoma Dwarf Lemon Citrus Tree ($70) BUY NOW

10 African Candelabra

Though this succulent isn't technically a tree, it may as well be, given it's capacity to reach great heights in this gorgeous sunroom designed by GRT Architects. These plants are originally from Southern Africa and thrive in dry environments, so it's probably not best for kitchens and bathrooms or other rooms with high-moisture. You only have to water it as you would any other succulent.

Tall Cactus Euphorbia ($33) BUY NOW

11 Ficus Tree

Ficus trees come in all shapes and sizes, sometimes resembling fiddle leaf figs and others looking a bit more gentle and billowy. They need medium to bright light and watering each time the top of the soil starts to get dry. They can shed a few leaves when you first bring it to its new home, too, but don't worry—that's normal when they're moved from one place to another. They look great in a variety of rooms, but we're digging the corner placement in this bathroom designed by Alexander DB.

Birch Lane Parkes Silk Ficus Tree in Pot ($81) BUY NOW

12 Money Tree

Another great indoor tree for low-light environments (though it favors dappled light), the money tree has a unique umbrella-like shape and can grow up to 6 feet tall (in the wild, they climb all the way up to 60 feet). You water it about every 1 to 2 weeks and keep it in a normal to humid environment. We love how it brings more dimension to this dining room designed by Studio Ashby.

The Sill Money Tree ($13) BUY NOW

13 Lady Palm

The Lady Palm requires the least light of almost all palms. They have multiple stems with thick branches, so they inject a lot of depth to spaces. They're super easy going and work well in a variety of spaces, you can keep it in pretty much any room of the house. Except indirect light is best, preferably north-facing.

House Plant Shop Rhapis Excelsa Lady Palm ($80) BUY NOW

14 Bamboo Tree

Indoor bamboo trees need a few hours of direct sunlight a day, making them pretty tricky to maintain indoors, but with the right environment, they can grow to be truly stunning. For a modern edge, opt for concrete or rough ceramic planters, like this gorgeous Hecker Guthrie-designed living room.

World Menagerie Bamboo Tree ($100) BUY NOW

15 Umbrella Tree

With vibrant green leaves, the umbrella tree is one of the best options for low-light homes. It grows quickly, so be sure to prune it regularly and fertilize it monthly. They can even grow up to 50 feet high when planted outside, but in a pot, it'll be much more manageable. We love the idea of putting a large indoor tree by the front door for a grande entrance, as done in this space by Alexander DB.

Birch Lane Schefflera Tree with Pot ($102) BUY NOW

16 Majesty Palm

Have we mentioned that palms are some of the best indoor trees around? Low Light makes majesty palms grow a bit slower, if you notice yours getting too tall. Or, on the other hand, if you want them to grow quickly, put them somewhere with more access to sunlight. Match your planter to the walls for a cohesive look, as done in this dining room designed by 2LG Studio.

Costa Farms Majesty Palm ($34) BUY NOW

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02

Bird of Paradise hotel celebrates with women inmates at Bihute prison

By VICKY BAUNKE

BIHUTE prison female inmates in Goroka, Eastern Highlands Province were given a special visit by staff from the Bird of Paradise Hotel last Friday to celebrate International Women’s Day.

With the theme, Balance for Better, the day was celebrated throughout PNG and internationally.

The visit was part of the Bird of Paradise hotel’s community engagement program.

The hotel staff presented 25 female prisoners with gift packs and lunch packs prepared by the hotel and a cake to celebrate the day.

The gift packs consisted of blankets and toiletries donated from Palmolive. while umbrellas were also given to six female CIS officers.

Bird of Paradise hotel manager RebeccaWallames said it was not the first time the hotel assisted women from the Bihute prison, and looked forward to continue the support. “This is a time we reflect on the success of women and their struggles and those women who have died,” Mrs Wallames said.

“Despite the hardships women go through, we must celebrate the gender of women and sisterhood.”

She encouraged women at the prison, that regardless of success or the bad choices made, women had to be proud of being a women.

She shared that everyone had a purpose in life and with that came the responsibly of making a choice.

03

'Bird of paradise meets Marchesa Luisa Casati'

"Faux fur, snake skin, hooflike heels, and other abstract signifiers of animality have played a key role in my daily self-fashioning," says Danielle Rosen. The 30-year-old visual artist, photographed at the Garfield Park Conservatory, is fascinated by the relationship between human and nonhuman animals, and has spent time working on an Icelandic sheep farm in Vermont. There she performed daily massages on three sheep—Luna, Aurora, and Juniper—to remove burrs from their wool. Rosen complements the lush vegetation of the conservatory with a look that she describes as "Bird of Paradise meets Marchesa Luisa Casati."

To match her canary-yellow faux-fur coat from Topshop, she sports a burst of yellow eyeshadow from MAC. From her left ear dangles a string of small colorful sculptures she designed herself, paired with a black hoop from local favorite Hvnter Gvtherer. For Rosen, style can be a form of armor. "Fashion allows me to molt and to build new permutations of being," she says. "It is a form of world building and a way to carve out new spaces for our bodies.

CupcakKe shares “Bird Box” video

Earlier this month, CupcakKe dropped her latest single, the rapid-fire "Bird Box." Today, she unveiled a video for the track. It's one of the Chicago MC's more low-key clips, some flashy footage of her dropping bars in a red-lit warehouse. Last month, she shared a hilarious NSFW clip for "Squidward Nose." Check that out here and watch "Bird Box" above.

02

Nintendo details Labo VR games, like Hop Dodge & Bird Dash

Nintendo has finally released more details about the different games and experiences available with Nintendo Labo VR.

Winner of this year’s Innovation Award at the Game Developer Choice Awards, Nintendo Labo is finally ready to woo kids with even more video game related toys. While we’ve known about the Nintendo Labo VR kit's April 12 release date for quite some time now, we finally have all the details of the VR set, including which games we’ll be able to play with the Labo VR kit.

Totaling out to 10 different experiences and games, Nintendo Labo VR will offer plenty for players to do. Games like Marble Run, Bird Dash and Blaster are big highlights to take into account, while others like Ocean Camera and House Camera will provide more laid-back options for players. We’ve broken down each of the ten different Labo VR games below, as well as included a brief description to help you know what each one is about.

Ocean Camera

Dive into the ocean and explore a beautiful virtual sea teeming with life. Take photos and interact with various sea species.

Home Camera

Explore a mysterious house and interact with a variety of magical and strange creatures that live within it. Take photos and complete missions inside the house.

Marble Run

Use the Toy-Con Elephant to complete physics puzzles using a variety of objects as you guide marbles through the rings. You can even create your own puzzles for family and friends to try to solve.

Doodle

Draw colorful art using the trunk of the Toy-Con Elephant as a brush. Includes a variety of styles, tools and colors to help you bring your art to life in VR.

Bird

Use the Toy-Con Bird to soar through the air all while collecting items and helping to hatch little baby birds along the way.

Nintendo Labo VR turns your Switch into a pair of VR goggles.Bird Dash

Use the Toy-Con Bird and Toy-Con Wind Pedal to compete in timed challenges all across the sky as you boost your way through the clouds. The Toy-Con Pedal even shoots out a short burst of air that helps to enhance the immersive nature of the experience.

Blaster

Pick up your Toy-Con Blaster and join the war to fight back an alien invasion in this on-rails shooter.

Kablasta

Wield your might Toy-Con Blaster once more as you compete against your friends to be the best hippo feeder. Fling fruit at the hungry hippos to try to lure them to your side and score all of the points.

Hop Dodge

Take control of a frog using the Toy-Con Wind Pedal and you jump as high as possible on a stack of balls that grows larger with each passing moment.

VR Plaza

Use all of your Toy-Con creations to take part in this party-game collection featuring over 64 mini games that include various puzzlers, platformers and more. Can also just be enjoyed with the Toy-Con VR Goggles and Switch system.

Alongside the array of games listed above, the Nintendo Labo VR kit will also include Toy-Con Garage. Anyone who has purchased a Labo kit before will recognize Garage as Labo’s easy-to-use programming set. Now, those who purchase the Nintendo Labo VR kit will also acquire Toy-Con Garage VR, which will allow players to make their own Labo VR experiences using the same tools that the Labo team used to make games like Blaster, Bird Dash, and the others included with Labo VR.

You can pick up Nintendo Labo VR by heading over to the official Nintendo website. Also, make sure you check out our array of other great Nintendo Switch content to see what else Nintendo has to offer.

Joshua holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and has been exploring the world of video games for as long as he can remember. He enjoys everything from large-scale RPGs to small, bite-size indie gems and everything in between.

03

CupcakKe Raps in Darkened Warehouse for Foreboding ‘Bird Box’ Video

CupcakKe hits a darkened warehouse-looking space, heightening her urgent, rapid-fire bars in her new video for “Bird Box.” It’s her second new single of the year, following the Chicago rapper’s previous released “Squidward Nose.”

The minimalist new visual finds the rapper, alongside a silent friend as the two groove together, inside a barebones room while red lights pulsate on and off to the beat, which enhances the foreboding vibe that’s reminiscent of the song’s horror film namesake. The low-end bass reverberates as CupcakKe adeptly intertwines pop cultural references and drops in savage attack lines all while keeping the flirty come-ons rolling.

Related stories

Hear CupcakKe Reference Jussie Smollett Case on New Song 'Bird Box'

Hear CupcakKe's Filthy New Song 'Squidward Nose'

CupcakKe Reportedly Safe After Hospitalization, Suicidal Tweet

CupcakKe’s recent singles follow the release of her two albums from last year, Ephorize and Eden, and she embarked on a tour Eden‘s fall release. In January, she opened up about her struggle with depression and suicidal thoughts after she sent out a concerning tweet that led to a police wellness check and ensuing hospitalization. That same week, she returned with the entertainingly raunchy “Squidward Nose.”

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For blackpoll warblers, migration is a very long haul. The birds fly 2,100 miles without stopping.

On a mid-September day, scientists Chris Rimmer and Bill DeLuca drive to the top of the highest mountain in Vermont. They sling bags over their shoulders, lower themselves down a steep rocky path and hike through a balsam fir forest until they find a good spot. Then they pull out nets and old ski racing poles.

They untangle the nets and string them from pole to pole, stopping to point out a falcon gliding overhead. They work on the east slope of the mountain. The wind blows from the west.

As kids, DeLuca and Rimmer loved being outside. They grew up to become wildlife biologists. Rimmer is the executive director of the Vermont Center for Ecostudies, and DeLuca is an ecologist at the University of Massachusetts. They have dedicated themselves to saving a bird — a special songbird called the blackpoll warbler.

The blackpoll warbler is a fist-size bird with an unusually high-pitched song. The male has white cheeks and a black mark on its head like a snow hat; the female is mostly gray with darker cheeks and no head marking. But what makes the bird special is the remarkable way it flies south for the winter.

In the fall, millions of these songbirds travel from their mountaintop summer homes in Canada, Alaska and New England to the northeast coast of the United States to prepare for a dangerous journey. For weeks, they eat. They fill their bellies with caterpillars, spiders and beetles until their bodies can hold no more.

And one fall day, when the sky is clear and the wind is calm, they begin to fly. They fly east to catch the tail winds, then swoop south. The most athletic of the blackpolls fly for three days without stopping.

As they fly, their fat converts to energy. They follow stars in the night sky and light patterns in the day sky. Most migrating birds land often to eat and rest; the blackpoll keeps flying.

Recently, DeLuca and a team of scientists strapped dime-size backpacks called geolocators onto some of the birds to track their flight path. The birds, they learned, had flown from the U.S. East Coast all the way to Venezuela or Colombia. They had traveled as far as 2,100 miles without stopping — more than 13,000 miles round trip. It was one of the most incredible migrations on the planet.

Sadly, the blackpolls are in danger. Each year, there are fewer birds, and the scientists want to know why. It could be worsening storms, or tropical forests shrinking as trees are cut down, or other animals competing for the blackpolls’ food as the climate warms.

DeLuca and Rimmer work until dark placing nets and then sleep on the floor of a nearby hut. They return before sunrise and find birds in the nets: a Lincoln’s sparrow, a Tennessee warbler and dozens of blackpolls.

In a small forest clearing, Rimmer holds one of the blackpolls, cradling the bird’s head between his pointer and middle fingers. He gently blows the feathers aside, measures its wingspan and tail and weighs it. Then delicately, using pliers, he closes a tiny aluminum band around its leg. Each band has a nine-digit number for tracking. They need to understand what’s hurting them to protect them. Maybe they’ll meet the bird in Vermont next fall.

When Rimmer is done, he opens his hand, and the songbird flies farther up the mountain and lands on a branch, facing south. Clouds are gathering; rain is coming. This blackpoll’s long journey will begin soon but not today.

More in KidsPost

Migrating snow geese are a beautiful sight but a scientific concern

Kids who love birdwatching can lend others a hand

Northern Alaska’s tundra swans have a long haul for winter

02

Cardinals Fly into BC Pro Day

Yesterday, the Cardinals sent offensive line and defensive back coaches to Boston College for the Eagles’ Pro Day. For BC, it was the largest gathering of pro scouts and coaches that they have seen in a number of years. This year, BC has a number of intriguing NFL prospects.

BC Players invited to the NFL Combine (a record number of 7):

·  G Chris Lindstrom (6-4, 310, 2 time 1st Team All-ACC)—-coming off strong performances at the Senior Bowl and NFL Combine, Lindstrom might be the first true guard to be drafted. The Cardinals worked him out in drills yesterday, as did the Patriots’ vaunted offensive line coach, Dante Scarneccia. According to Draft Analyst, Tony Pauline, Lindstrom was very impressive in the drills. At the Combine, Pauline issued Lindstrom high praise when he likened him to former BC and NY Giants’ All Pro G Chris Snee.

·  DE Zach Allen (6-5, 290, 2018 PFF 2nd Team All-American)—-coaches are very impressed with Allen’s versatility. He is a fit at 43 DE, 34 DE and as both an edge and inside pass rusher in sub packages. For an edge player, Allen is a tackling and playmaking savant—-in the past two seasons he recorded 161 tackles, 30.5 tackles for loss, 10.5 sacks and 2 interceptions. He is superb at getting his hands on passes.

·  S Will Harris (6-2, 210, 4.41 40)—-As a senior, Harris started all 12 games at SS, and recorded 73 tackles and 1 interception. As a junior, he started all 13 games, he led the nation with four fumble recoveries and he was third on the team with 83 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, one interception, two pass breakups and one sack. Harris is physical and arrives at the ball in a hurry.

Business is boomin for Will Harris at the #NFLCombine #NFLCombine | @NFLNetwork #WeAreBC

Posted by Boston College Football on Monday, March 4, 2019

·  TE Tommy Sweeney (6-5, 255, career 99 catches, 1,281, 10 TDs )—-Sweeney is a highly competitive TE who is a solid blocker and a good receiving target. He’s not a modern day blazer at TE and is more of an old-fashioned well-rounded type.

·  Lukas Denis (5-11, 185, 4.64 40, 6.86 3 cone)—-tied for the NCAA lead in interceptions as a junior—-he’s adept at sniffing out and jumping routes from the free safety position. Has good short area quickness and anticipation. Not very physical, which will likely make him a Day 3 pick. Has value as cover 2 free safety and slot CB.

·  OLB Wyatt Ray (6-3, 250, 2018 3rd Team All-ACC, 9 sacks as senior, 114 tackles, 24 tfl and 17 sacks for career)—-offers speed and quickness off the edge.

·  LB Connor Strachan (6-0, 240, 91 tackles, 3 sacks, 1 forced fumble as a senior)—-has a nose for the ball as run stuffer and is very good over the middle in pass coverage.

BC Sleepers:

·  LT Aaron Monteiro (6-7, 320)—-has excellent size, strong thighs and upper body and solid feet. Will likely flip over to RT in the NFL. Was getting a good deal of attention from the scouts and coaches yesterday. He was not invited to the Combine.

·  WR Jeff Smith (6-1, 195)—-ran 4.34 40 yesterday—-a converted QB who was a natural fit in the team’s jet sweeps and passing attack. He is a Kliff Kingsbury type of WR who can stretch the defense via the run and pass and has excellent RAC ability.

·  WR/PR/KR Michael Walker (6-0, 200, 2018 2nd Team All-ACC return man)—-led the nation in combined yards on punt and kickoff returns. Has a catch, make one move and run through the middle style. Super tough and fearless.

·  C/G Jon Baker (6-3, 300). Two year captain who returned this year from a season ending knee injury in 2017 which happened in the first game. He is a tough kid who plays with good leverage. Should surprise a team late in draft or as a UCFA. This kid can play.

·  DT Ray Smith (6-1, 300)—-short but powerful run stuffer who recorded 108 tackles the last two years (which is pretty rare production for a DT. Probably won’t get drafted, but could find a niche as run stuffer in short yardage and goal line situations.

Draft Thoughts:

Perhaps the Cardinals biggest dilemma will be what to do with the #33 pick. They will have the night to take calls for trade offers and to rank which players are on the board.

Two BC players could figure prominently here: G Chris Lindstrom and DE Zach Allen, and imo, as a BC alum, having watched every one of the their games at BC, both Lindstrom and Allen are very deserving of the pick. One or both of them could sneak into the late portion of Round 1.

I could see the Cardinals taking S Will Harris at the start of the 4th round, although he might sneak into the late portion of the 3rd round after his outstanding Combine performance. The Cardinals would like to add safety depth in this draft and they focused quite a bit of their attention on Will Harris yesterday.

OLB Wyatt Ray would be a a good value pick in Round 5, if he is still on the board.

I am not sure that FS Luka Denis has the length and physicality the Cardinals covet at safety. Nor do I think TE Tommy Sweeney and LB Connor Strachan are the right system fits.

However, WR Jeff Smith would be an outstanding 6th or 7th round pick, as would T Aaron Monteiro and C/G Jon Baker. And if the Cardinals weren’t so stacked at punt and kickoff return I would love to see them pick WR Michael Walker, who is also a nifty RAC slot WR.

03

Bengalureans to help birds fly high this summer

Express News Service

BENGALURU: The summer heat is harsh on many, not excluding birds of the city. Now, residents can do their bit in helping birds survive the rising mercury levels. Bengaluru Opts to Adopt (BOTA), in collaboration with Animal Helpline - Karuna Foundation, Rajkot, Gujarat, is distributing a thousand bird boxes in Bengaluru for the next two months. The first drive will be held in Cubbon Park on March 24, followed by a collection point at Therpup, Whitefield.

Ritika Goel, founder of BOTA, recalled an incident from her travels a couple of months ago. She came across something black on a highway to Mysuru and found that it was a bird that had twisted its neck and wings but was still alive. Goel immediately made some calls and found the nearest shelter, where the vet informed her that the bird was dehydrated.

“The vet explained how birds can get into a state of shock due to heat waves. They are losing their natural habitat due to increasing deforestation. The frequency of waves from the mobile network towers also affect birds,” she explained. 

The incident spurred the idea for the campaign and soon, Animal Helpline - Karuna Foundation, Rajkot, came on board to sponsor 1,000 bird boxes and has already shipped them to Bengaluru. “We would be distributing one box per person for free. It’s a compact box with holes for ventilation and hanging bowls. One can recycle the plastic bowls or dabbas they get from hotels and place them on top of the box. We will be spreading awareness with notes in the box on how and where to place these bird boxes,” said Goel, adding that they aim to target small birds such as bulbul and sparrows. 

Patrons can also click selfies with their bird boxes after they place them in their house and send them to the organisation. “In case anyone is not able to make it to the collection points on any day, they can make their own bird box. They can send their selfies with the box to us. The most creative DIY box will get lot of goodies,” she added.

Ever since the campaign was announced, Goel has been receiving many calls, including from the government veterinary hospital in Hebbal. “They have asked us to do similar programme in their campus. We have tied up with a corporate company for an event too,” she said.

Art review: The bird as art soars over Alaska

No result found, try new keyword!Jacqueline Jones-Butler, for the News-Miner 17 min ago The exhibit “Celebrating Alaska’s Birds” is currently on view at Well Street Art Company in conjunction with the Alaska Bird Conference, a ...

02

Andrew Bird’s ‘My Finest Work Yet’ isn’t afraid to celebrate discomfort

The new album’s inspiration is politics, especially issues around gun safety and climate change, which have been in Bird’s mind since the arrival of his young son. But here, too, he doesn’t want to do things the obvious way. “I want to talk about things we’re not talking about as a people,” he says. “What can I say that’s gonna be on a different frequency than everything else?”

03

Art exhibition Celebrating Alaska’s Birds shows the way artists view bird populations

Exhibition Celebrating Alaska’s Birds is currently on view at Well Street Art Company in conjunction with the Alaska Bird Conference, a gathering of bird researchers.

The group show offers an opportunity to see how Alaska artists view the state’s thriving bird population.

From the smallest chickadees to the majestic eagles, nearly every species is represented: puffins and ptarmigans, red polls and robins, woodpeckers and whimbrels, sandhill cranes, sandpipers, owls, phalaropes, ducks, cedar waxwings and snow buntings. So many birds – flying, feeding, nesting. They are rendered in every imaginable medium: oils, acrylics, watercolours, pencil, ink, ceramic, glass, wood and metal. The show is a visual delight, truly a celebration of Alaska’s avian and artistic diversity.

T Mike Croskrey’s “Tlingit Warrior” is a monumental carved wooden sculpture, a pair of stylized bird profiles surround a central, masklike, horned and bearded head. The breastplate of wooden slats is meticulously wrapped in twine and coppery raffia creates the illusion of a dance cape. The figure’s mouth is opened as if to speak or chant.

Its exact opposite is Naomi Hutchen’s “If You Like It, You Should Put A Bird On It.” The smallest, most fragile twigs are lashed together with copper, brass and silver wire, and tiny, airy birds formed of the same wire are indeed “put on it.”

T Mike Croskrey’s ‘Tlingit Warrior’ is a monumental carved wooden sculpture. A pair of stylised bird profiles surround a central, mask-like, horned and bearded head. The breastplate of wooden slats is meticulously wrapped in twine, and coppery raffia creates the illusion of a dancer’s cape

Iris Sutton’s birds appear on large canvases with her own unique pastel colorations, while Mary Beth Kaufman’s common murres are beautifully rendered in a watercolour so small and delicate, it might easily be overlooked.

There are plenty of ravens, common ravens and not so common ravens. “Punk Raven” by Hannah Foss springs out at the viewer from the wall, talons thrusting, eyes wild, feathers a bilious green. Jan Raven Stitt’s close-up of a single raven captures the iridescent complexity of a raven’s blackness.

 “Young Hipster,” Vladimir Zhikhartsev’s stellar jay, glows with subtle lighting. Harrison Carpenter captures the crowded flurry of shorebirds perching, landing and taking off from coastal cliffs as two calm, wise-looking puffins in the foreground look on. There are funny birds by Fairbanks cartoonist Jamie Smith and there is whimsy in Melissa Simpson’s fiber piece, “Oyster Catchers Beneath Red Volcanos” and in Michele Croskrey’s multi-media, three dimensional assemblages of found objects.

Two examples of masterful woodcut prints are Yumi Kawaguchi’s “Snow Buntings” and David Mollett’s mandala-like “Crane.”

The Well Street Art Company is located in the railroad industrial area at 13014 Well St. and is open from noon to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. The exhibit will be in place until April 3.

Published in Daily Times, March 22nd 2019.

Golden Bird 2.0: Engineering the Change for the India of Tomorrow

Indian science legend, Bharat Ratna and Nobel laureate Sir CV Raman once said, “We need a spirit of victory, a spirit that will carry us to our rightful place under the sun, a spirit which can recognize that we, as inheritors of a proud civilization, are entitled to our rightful place on this planet. If that indomitable spirit were to arise, nothing can hold us from achieving our rightful destiny.”

India recently completed seven glorious decades of being a democratic superpower Being the second most populous state on the planet doesn’t just make us the largest democracy but also a country abundant with science and technology potential. Add engineering to the mix and you get a nation well on its way towards becoming the innovation pole-star of the world and there are multiple cylinders powering this growth. From putting a hundred satellites into space in one launch to connecting hundreds of cities via smart technologies, India is well its way to be the global engineering epicentre.

Numbers validate India’s Growth Narrative

Recently, IMF projected Indian economy to grow by 7.5% in the 2019-20 fiscal year, keeping an ascendant trajectory as the rest of the world slumps. IMF also stated that India will continue to be the world’s fastest growing major economy and forecast the country’s growth to clock 7.7% in 2020-21. This is nearly twice the global growth rate of the world which stands at 3.5% in 2019 and 3.6% in 2020.

Complementing this economic impetus is the augmenting engineering potential of India. India’s Engineering and R&D (ER&D) ecosystem is all set to skyrocket due to increasing industrial focus on new-age technologies like AI, IoT, Big Data and Machine Learning as well as Cybersecurity, Advanced Robotics, Mobile Applications and Digital Reality. According to NASSCOM, India’s ER&D sector is set almost double to USD 42 billion by FY2022 as compared to USD 24 billion in FY2017.

Winds of Change for Engineering in India

A multitude of research reports also point out that ER&D outsourcing has been on a rise in India. According to ResearchGate, by 2020, around US$ 125-150 Billion would be spent on engineering services outsourcing. Of this, India is expected to garner a share of around 40%, equivalent to US$ 50-60 Billion. Total outsourcing spend on engineering services is estimated to be growing 3-4 times the rate of total expenditure on engineering.

According to the analyst community, a consistent increase in demand for engineering services contracts and IoT deals have helped ER&D business grow faster than the traditional IT services. NASSCOM states that product and services development will continue to grow driven by strong demand in autonomous services, electrification, connectivity and shared mobility. Regulatory support through several initiatives such as Make in India, Digital India and BharatNet among others will only complement these factors.

Problems? No problem, India shall overcome!

It is certain that where there are opportunities, there are always challenges. Indian ER&D environment faces three major impediments which can potentially derail the pace of industrial growth as well as technological and socio-economic development.

Firstly, it is a bitter-sweet truth that while India is among the top adapters to global technological and business developments, it lags in being a trend-setter itself. Major Indian industries, especially manufacturing and automotive have not yet tapped into the global wave of ER&D innovations such as automation and analytics. Secondly, the workforce in India is not at par with their global counterparts as far as digital skills are concerned. Lastly, India’s education system has underperformed in delivering industry ready engineers who can take the industrial innovation to the next level.

Interestingly, the process of seeking solutions to these issues start in the reverse order. First of all, India needs a stronger focus on science-based education in schools to develop a natural inclination towards engineering and associated courses. The colleges and universities need to upgrade their curriculum, and this can be possible only through strong collaboration between industry and academia. IIT Hyderabad has recently announced launching of a B.Tech program in AI; hopefully this is one of many welcome changes to come.

According to NASSCOM, up to 65% of the 4 million jobs in the industry today is likely to change over the next 5 years. Such massive skill disruption requires Indian enterprises to build a talent pipeline for the future and enable existing workforce to get reskilled. This way, Indian industries will be able to take up projects with greater complexity that will enable them to innovate more and establish themselves as among the leaders of new age of industrial revolution.

Conclusion

‘India of the Future’ can be realized only when we stop playing catch-up to global innovations and develop & execute original ideas much like our space agency ISRO has been doing for a while now. This culture of innovation is possible only when the entire ecosystem from institutes to industries embrace a mindset of engineering transformation. Centuries ago, India was the epicentre of science, medicine and trade and it won’t be incorrect to state that ER&D will pave the way for the new ‘silk-route’ that will reposition India as the golden bird of the world.

By Dr Keshab Panda, CEO and MD, L&T Technology Services

02

The Weather Channel India Weekly Digest (Mar 18 - 22, 2019): Top Weather, Environment and Science Stories of the Week

A quick recap of the top weather, environment and science stories of the week.

World Sparrow Day: Why We Need to Save These Ubiquitous Little Bird

House sparrows, once a burgeoning number and found all around us, have seen a significant decline in their population in recent years. Over the years these birds have been subjected to extreme stress induced by human intervention like urbanization, loss of forest habitats and depletion of their natural food sources like insects and worms. This week, on world sparrow day we looked at why these small birds need our help. Read more.

How Genuine Are Your ‘Eco-Friendly’ Holi Colours?

Holi is a festival of colours when many across India eagerly smear many bright colours on each other. However, many of these colours can be hazardous in nature and can cause serious health and environmental consequences. As the awareness on this grows, the manufacturing of organic colours has caught pace. This Holi we try to decode the truth behind the so-called ‘eco-friendly’ Holi colours. Read more.

Rains Takes Active Part in Holi Celebrations Across India

The rain gods seem to have paid heed to cries of water wastage during Holi. As the Met teams forecast rain across north and northeastern states and isolated thunderstorms in central and southern India, excessive heat may not hinder celebrations. As Holi closely coincides with the March equinox which marks the beginning of spring in northern himisphere. Read more.

Eat, to Save the Planet

Eat-Lancet Commission recommends a diet that can potentially be less harmful to the environment and result in better health among humans at the same time. Fortunately, the kind of diet prescribed by the Lancet Commission is very similar to the one Indians have been eating over the past. The prescription suggests increasing the quantum of locally grown vegetables and fruits, along with cereals, and lessening the consumption of meat-based products. Read more.

India Bats for Plastic Ban and Nitrogen Management at UN

India has assumed a leadership role in fighting plastic pollution and sustainable nitrogen management in the UN Environment Assembly. Both of these are deemed as global challenges and need immediate redressal. After five days of negotiations at the Fourth UN Environment Assembly in this Kenyan capital, ministers from more than 170 UN member states delivered a bold blueprint for change. Read more.

Freezing Sea Water Proposed to Fight Global Warming

In the face of the daunting threat to the polar ice caps by global warming, three young geo-engineering enthusiasts have come up with an innovative method to arrest the impact of the rising temperatures. The idea promotes desalinating the seawater through reverse osmosis and then pumping it to a height of around 150-200 feet for sprinkling in the polar region. This exercise is expected to freeze the sea water and consolidate the ice caps. Read more.

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The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.

03

Can you knit? Local rescue group needs homemade nests for baby birds

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Carolina Waterfowl Rescue Group is looking for people who can knit or crochet wildlife rescue nests for their baby birds. 

The homemade nests will serve as a safe haven for rescued birds at the Indian Trail located rescue center. 

Knitted Artificial Bird NestDirections:On size 5 dpn’s cast on 54 stitches using 2 or 3 strands of yarn so the nests are tightly knit and will stand up in a bowl shape on their own! (divide sts up into 18 sts/needle). Work in knit (stockingette is automatic on dpn’s) stitch for approximately 3 inches. Begin decreasing for the crown as follows:Next row: *K 7, k 2 tog* repeat to endNext row: *K 6, k 2 tog* repeat to endNext row: *K 5, k 2 tog* repeat to endNest row: *K 4, k 2 tog* repeat to endNext row: *K 3, k 2 tog* repeat to endNext row: *K 2, k 2 tog* repeat to endNext row: *K 1, k 2 tog* repeat to endClip off yarn leaving a tail of about 6 inches.Using yarn needle, slide yarn needle under all stitches on needles, and draw tight to close up the end. Knot 

Make sure the nest can stand up in a bowl shape on its own!

CROCHETED Artificial Bird Nest

Several yards of Worsted weight yarn.  Hold 2 or 3 strands together for a TIGHT stitch!

Size H hook

Starting ring:  Crochet 3 chains using 2 or even 3 strands of yarn held together, and slip stitch last chain to first chain to make a loop or ring.

Round 1: Chain 2 (this counts as your first “stitch), work between 10 – 15 single crochets into th ring (depending on what thickness yarn you are using).  Slip stitch the last single crochet to the top stitch in the chain 2 that started this round. Round 2: Chain 2. Single crochet into each of the next two stitches, then do 2 single crochet’s into the next stitch, single crochet into the next two stitches, then 2 single crochet’s in the the next stitch. And on and on around the circle. Slip stitch your last single crochet into the top of the chain 2 that started this round.Round 3, 4, 5, 6, and on: Repeat Round 2 over and over, until your circle is at least 3” big. You can make your nest with a bottom as small as 3” big, up to maybe 6” big.

Once you have made the bottom of the nest from 3” to 6” big, from all rounds thereafter, crochet ONE single crochet into each stitch. You will see your “sides” begin to form. Crochet until the sides are about 2 – 3” high. Bind off and weave in loose ends

If you like to knit or crochet you can make these nests for baby birds. Mail them to:

CWRPo box 1484Indian trail NC 28079

 Click here to read more about the rescue nests.

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