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Blog: Round Robin

• Louisiana update: When oil stops, the hard work can begin (slideshow)
  Our multimedia production team returned from their 7-week trip to the Gulf Coast on July 20. Coincidentally, that was just a few days after BP’s latest cap managed to stop the leaking oil (a permanent end is expected in August, when relief wells are completed). It’s been a relief to finally glimpse the end of [...]
• NestWatchers can help look for oil’s wider effects
  A Tree Swallow is not exactly the face of the Gulf oil spill at present—and we hope it never will be. But many backyard-nesting birds, including swallows, do migrate through the Gulf Coast twice a year. We’re encouraging people to participate in our NestWatch project as one way to keep an eye on their populations. [...]
• Louisiana report: Hurricane weather (slideshow)
  For the last three days a weird, underwatery gray light has bathed the Delta. Tides high from the full moon have pushed past marina docks and pooled under boat trailers in the parking lots. Cattails and palm trees bend in the same direction all day long, under steady east-southeast breezes. Old-timers call this hurricane weather. [...]
• Louisiana report: Oiled mangroves and the birds within (slideshow)
  On Saturday we visited a few small mangrove islands in Bay Ronquille, south of Bay Jimmy, the place where thick oil in the saltmarsh grasses made the news early last week. Looking at a map, it must have been that same pulse of oil that washed over these islands. The worst part was seeing how [...]
• Louisiana report: A hundred thousand seabirds (slideshow)
  On Friday we visited the magnificent seabird colonies of Breton Island, home to some 100,000 terns, pelicans, and gulls. After witnessing some heavily oiled mangrove islands the day before (more on this in a later post), it was a relief to see such a vibrant spectacle with little sign of oil. Breton National Wildlife Refuge [...]