...will be the subject of a staged conversation tonight -- ALOUD curator Louise Steinman will ask the questions (I presume) and Jonathan Rosen will talk about his book and birds. The book title (The Life of the Skies: Birding at the End of Nature) sounds a bit End of History. But if Rosen means to talk about present-day urban birding, I am with him. Especially since Echo Park provides such an incredibly rich birding platform.
(Click here for info.)

Loosely related, but speaking of urban birds, a friend of mine recently posted on the Echo Park Animal Alliance's list serve her concerns for the welfare of wild birds in Vons:

I was shopping in the Vons on Montana in Echo Park and there was a bird flying around inside the store...I mentioned it to the checker and she said she had repeatedly tried to coax it outside with a trail of breadcrumbs. She then went on to tell me that the store brings someone in with a BB gun to kill it and that they have done it before.