Bird Nest's Heaven

g.webring.com Bird’s Nest is rare and so expensive that only wealthy people can consume it. Many people know that it’s a “cold food” because it has a cooling effect when you consume it. In Chinese they called it “Yin”. Bird’s nest is produced by swiftlets. These birds are from the same family as the common […]

The fight to reopen Swallow Cliff slides must continue


Chicago Daily Southtown, IL – Mar 28, 2014
March 28, 2014

The issue: New report says cost to repair the shuttered Cook County toboggan slides has increased dramatically.

We say: The forest preserve district must study all of its options and find a way to reopen the slides. Despite the report’s gloominess, it appears there are several practical alternatives. The slides — particularly Swallow Cliff — are too valuable an asset to remain closed.

Trying to reopen the popular Swallow Cliff toboggan slides in Palos Township has been an uphill battle. But we’re not giving up the fight, and it’s good to see the local Cook County commissioner, Elizaeth Doody Gorman, isn’t either.

The latest development concerning the slides’ fate occurred last week when a new report showed that fixing and reopening Swallow Cliff and the county’s other slides would cost $3.7 million. That’s $2.2 million more than previously had been estimated.
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Fouling the nest

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answersingenesis.org
Christianity and the environment
by Carl Wieland
‘What should we think of the Greenhouse Effect?’ AiG speakers often face questions like this on environmental matters. It is helpful, even vital, to view such things from a Biblical perspective. But in a complex world, it may not be possible to give a rigidly ‘for’ or ‘against’ Christian response. Biblical principles are unchanging, but the situations we face, and the information available, are not.
Imagine you are a bureaucrat in 19th-century South America, contemplating the vast, seemingly limitless expanse of the Amazon jungle. Some poor villagers ask you for a permit to clear an acre for their crops. Or you’re the same bureaucrat in the distant future; some rich estate-owner asks if he can clear one of the last remaining stands of Amazonian trees, home of some of the rarest and most beautiful of God’s creatures, because they obstruct the breeze to his mansion. Presumably your response would be different in each case! Read more about Fouling the nest

Cliff Swallow

suite101.com/article BirdingBy Fred J. Kane Hirundo pyrrhonota Vieillot The Cliff Swallows usually come into view in early days of May. In summer they stay only in the surrounding area of their usual nesting settlements. The number of this birds breeding in the provinces seems to have declined. Birders see small numbers after the month of […]

Transplanting a Barn Swallow Nest

.americanartifacts.com Richard & Diane Van Vleck – Personal Pages Barn swallow colony sites are frequently destroyed when old buildings are demolished or sold to new owners, who wish to close them up. Attracting swallows to buildings where they will be allowed to nest has been simply a matter of opening a door or window, perhaps, […]

Transplanting a Barn Swallow Nest

.americanartifacts.com Richard & Diane Van Vleck – Personal Pages Barn swallow colony sites are frequently destroyed when old buildings are demolished or sold to new owners, who wish to close them up. Attracting swallows to buildings where they will be allowed to nest has been simply a matter of opening a door or window, perhaps, […]

Review of Scientific Research on Edible Bird's Nest

hkfsta.com.hk/articles Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Shun Wan CHAN Abstract: Edible bird’s nest is one of the widely used health foods in Chinese communities. The market generated by it is increasing because it exhibits a lot of beneficial effects to human beings. For its high market value, fake […]

Riches of Gomantong Caves

wildasia.net contributed by Reza Azmi Gomantong Hill is the largest limestone outcrop in the Lower Kinabatangan area, and contains at least nine caves. For centuries, the Gomantong Caves have been renowned for the valuable edible birds’ nests made by two of the four species of swiftlets that roost in the caves. During the harvesting months, […]

Cyathus striatus, one of the bird's nest fungi


botit.botany.wisc.edu
This month’s fungus is another common inhabitant of bark or wood mulch. Although less than a centimeter in diameter, Cyathus striatus often grows in huge clusters, thus making them easily visible, even from some distance. They’re cute little fungi, almost always found wherever there is wood, as long as you look hard enough. The common name “bird’s nest fungus” should be obvious to anyone looking at the small mass of “eggs” within the small “nests” or cups of the fruiting bodies. The “eggs” in the nest contain the basidiospores within them. These eggs (technically called peridioles) are actually analogous to tiny puffballs (like Lycoperdon or Calvatia gigantea) in that they contain the basidiospores inside of them. The basidiospores are borne on small basidia that line the small chambers inside of the eggs. However, the spores are not forcibly ejected from the basidia as they are in Agaricus, Amanita, Boletus, and almost all of the mushroom formers.
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