The photograph atop this post -- a Common tern in flight with food near Fort McHenry -- is one of many from the camera of Nico Sarbanes, the subject of my last column of 2022. I thought reporting on Nico's year of birding in five Baltimore parks -- he recorded more than 200 species -- would be a good way to end the year. There has been a lot of gloom about the declining bird populations of North America; the facts are quite depressing. The human epoch has not been kind to birds; some species are facing population collapse. There is plenty we humans can do to reverse, or at least, stop the downward spiral. But we have to appreciate what's at stake first. And that's what I take from Nico's observations and his photography -- that the many birds around us, seen and unseen (and sometimes only heard in the distance) are great gifts. We should never take for granted their beauty and song.
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