Drink coffee? Even if you don't, have you ever wondered how coffee growing in Central America might affect birdwatching in your own backyard in the U.S. or Canada? Do you know what folks mean when they talk about "shade-grown" vs. "sun-grown" coffee?
Coffee--and birds and orchids and butterflies and sustainable farming--are all covered in the 1-7 February 2007 edition of "This Week at Hilton Pond." (The photo essay really should be called "This Week at Finca Cristina," an environmentally friendly organic coffee farm in Costa Rica that's doing shade-grown coffee the "right way.") To learn more about one farm's efforts to help "our" birds as well as their own, visit the current installment at http://www.hiltonpond.org/ThisWeek070201.html . It's an essay with LOTS of photos of Costa Rican flora, fauna, and habitats, so be patient if it takes a while to load; if the site's busy, please bookmark it and come back later. Next week we'll report on our just-completed hummingbird research expedition in another part of Costa Rica. Happy (Tropical) Nature Watching! BILL -- RESEARCH PROGRAM c/o BILL HILTON JR. Executive Director Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History 1432 DeVinney Road, York, South Carolina 29745 USA [EMAIL PROTECTED], (803) 684-5852, eFax: (503) 218-0845 Please visit our web sites (courtesy of Comporium.net): Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History at http://www.hiltonpond.org "Operation RubyThroat: The Hummingbird Project" at http://www.rubythroat.org **********
