AS published in the Weekly Avocet, Fountain Hills, Arizona

​Full Speed Ahead
 
I wonder how there came to be
a plastic island in the sea.
 
No challenge to avoid a crash.
Cleave right through, our course is brash.
 
Beware if barnacles adorn your boat.
They’ll snag each plastic piece afloat.
 
Cigarette lighters float in the wrack
thick as lice on a heron’s back.
 
Old bleach bottle and plastic bag; 
sent to landfills by both dame and hag.
 
The plastics escape with torrential rain;
Go down the river like soap down the drain.
 
Birds and turtles feed on this mess.
Dead in a week would be my guess.
 
So, keep your plastic safe at home.
Don’t send it out to sea to roam. 

The Chattanooga Writers Guild and the City of Chattanooga Office of Multicultural Affairs are pleased to announce the 2018 Chattanooga Readers and Writers Fair to take place at the Downtown Branch of the Chattanooga Public Library, 1101 Broad Street. The event will include:
 
Book Sales and Readings on the Library Fourth Floor 10 AM to 4:30 PM
 
Children’s activities on the Library Second Floor beginning at 11:00.
            Participants will make a booklet and fill it with writing and artwork to take home.
 
Readings at the Library First Floor Auditorium 11:00 and 1:00 to 4:00

• Fiction 11:00
• Poetry 1:00
• Nonfiction 2:00
• Spoken Word 3:00

 
Noon lunch break on the Library Plaza with Food Trucks and an Open Mic
 
For Full details, see our web page https://readnwritefair.wordpress.com/
Or contact readnwritefair@gmail.com
​Thanks to Barnes and Noble for sponsoring this event. 

Little Owl Festival
May 19, 2018
Audubon Acres
 
Benefitting

• The Chattanooga Audubon Society
• Happinest Wildlife Rehabilitation and Rescue
• Chattanooga Wild Trails

 
5K Trail Run - 10:00
Craft Vendors and Local Foods – 11:00 to 6:00
Music on the Stage - 11 to 5:30
The student Art Contest Awards Ceremony – 2:00
Contact: Chattanooga Audubon: 423 899- 1499
LittleOwlFestival@chattaudubon.org
 
Thanks to our Sponsors
​Tennessee Valley Federal Credit Union
NASH 107.9 FM
Claws & Paws
​Techniques Salon
​

May 1 – Observations at 5 PM

At Chickamauga Dam the water flows with the force of recent rains. It had risen on the bank, but the level is now descending. Three Osprey circle above the muddy tide and move off down river.

Several Double Crested Cormorants fly downstream low over the water. Movement seems to be downstream, away from the dam, but three crows buck the tide to fly up and over the dam.

Herons line the bank, but in smaller numbers than usual. A few fly over the water but do not land. I have seen them land on the surface and float downstream with the current. This does not seem to be a fishing technique. I don't know why they do this.

Several Tree Swallows fly above the muddy chop. One sits on a sign which says, “Warning: Dangerous Waters.”

At Chattanooga State TCC the Great Blue Herons have long deserted the nests above the creek at the west entrance. Three of them stand on emergent logs in the creek. One Green Heron poses as though for a photograph. Green Herons are usually much more secretive. Photographs of them appear at https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Green_Heron/id

​At Amnicola Marsh another Green Heron perches near the viewing area. The Green Heron is usually a shy bird. I count myself lucky to have observed them several times over the past few weeks. Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology lists them as common but rapidly declining.

Eleven Great Egrets and five Great Blue Herons are present today. Tree swallows are less abundant, as are Common Grackles. Red-winged Blackbirds sing from hidden perches. An Osprey circles above the pond.
The goose family is present with five young. One lone goose sits on a island by the further shore. A Carolina Wren sings as though he were king of the world but refuses to show himself.

The singing of bullfrogs has become more prolific. Other frogs have come and gone.

The blackberries are thick with blossoms. Oddly, they bloomed earlier in my neighborhood despite the higher elevation. Up there, the dogwoods have bloomed fiercely, and the redbuds have dropped their blossoms.