A bird in the hand is worth two in the mist net

In general the only people who like power line corridors – those straight cuts through forest and field for electricity transmission towers – are ATV riders, who appreciate the pathway.

Or so I thought until I spent a morning with UNH researchers quantifying numbers and species of songbirds living in a very wide corridor (it carries to 345-kv lines) in southeastern NH. Here’s the story, with great photos from Jonh Huff of Foster’s Daily Democrat (he didn’t particularly want to write a story and my cellphone pix were crummy, so we joined forces).

One horrifying thing I learned that didn’t make it into the story: The two main predators of eggs and baby birds are garter snakes and chipmunks.

Cute little chipmunks are bloodthirsty baby-bird killers! Man, you can’t trust anything in Nature …