Birds can be spotted just about anywhere, in your neighborhood, local forests or State Parks. But if you’re really serious about spotting some spectacular birds, you can’t beat national wildlife refuges.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, “refuges’ concentration along the country’s four main flyways ­ — Atlantic, Mississippi, Central and Pacific – make them natural bird magnets. Some refuges have been designated Important Birding Areas – sites that provide essential habitat for one or more bird species – by the National Audubon Society.”

Want to give it a try? Here are the top five wildlife refuges for bird lovers.

Source: Friends of Malheur

Malheur National Wildlife Refuge – Southeast Oregon

Comprised of lands encompassed by Malheur, Mud and Harney Lakes, Malheur National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1908 by President Theodore Roosevelt “as a preserve and breeding ground for native birds.” The Refuge is the temporary home of more than 320 bird species, including American white pelicans, snow geese and tundra swans. Its location on the Pacific Flyway and its abundant water and food attract both resident and migratory birds.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Aransas National Wildlife Refuge – Texas Coast

With mild winters and an abundance of food, it’s no surprise that Aransas National Wildlife Refuge boasts more than 400 bird species, including the rarest bird in North America: the Whooping Crane. In winter, many other birds feed on fish, blue crab and shellfish in the coastal marsh. The refuge’s oak hills provide important habitat for neotropical birds, such as orioles, grosbeaks and buntings, migrating between North and Central America.

Source: USFWS

Tamarac National Wildlife Refuge – Minnesota

Did you ever read E.B. White’s Trumpet of the Swan as a kid? It was all about a very special Trumpet Swan, one of the most majestic birds known to man and unique because it mates for life. In the late 1880s, trumpeter swans disappeared from Minnesota. In 1987, the Tamarac National Wildlife Refuge teamed up with the state to restore these magnificent birds. Today, more than 30 pairs nest on the refuge. April through October is the best time to see them.

Source: NASA

Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge – Florida’s East Coast

Launching space shuttles isn’t the only thing that makes Cape Canaveral famous. Located nearby is Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, which is world-famous as a birding destination. From December to February, hundreds of thousands of migratory birds use the refuge as a rest stop or winter in refuge impoundments. During warmer months, resident wading birds, shore birds, songbirds and raptors forage in refuge marshes, open waters and forests. The Scrub Ridge and Pine Flatwoods trails offer your best bets for seeing the Florida scrub jay, a species found only in Florida.

Source: MoreSatisfyingPhotos.com

Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge – Delaware Bay

Birds returning from their winter vacation spots often choose Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge as a resting spot before continuing North. Every spring and fall, hungry birds interrupt their journey to visit this spot on the Delaware Bay. They can be spotted feeding by the thousands on the salt marsh mudflats and in freshwater impoundments. Common species include semi-palmated sandpipers, dunlin, dowitchers, yellowlegs, semi-palmated plovers and American avocets.

This is only a tiny sampling of all of the marvelous National Wildlife Refuges that play host and home to unique bird species. Know of another one that belongs on this list? Share it in a comment!

You can also check out the FWS’ list of “Great Refuges For Birding.”

Read more: bird watching, birding, birds, conservation, national wildlife refuge, nature, outdoor activities

Lead Image via Thinkstock

Israeli-Palestinian peace talks to resume after three years

Arshad Mohammed and Ori Lewis 8 hours agoPoliticsForeign PolicyJohn KerryUnited States Department of StateBarack ObamaIsrael

View Gallery

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem July 28, 2013. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

By Arshad Mohammed and Ori Lewis

WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel and the Palestinians plan to resume peace negotiations this week for the first time in nearly three years after an intense effort by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to bring them back to the table.

The talks are scheduled to resume in Washington on Monday evening and Tuesday and will be conducted by senior aides to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the State Department said.

"Both leaders have demonstrated a willingness to make difficult decisions that have been instrumental in getting to this point. We are grateful for their leadership," Kerry said in a statement.

Middle East analysts voiced skepticism that the talks might lead to a peace treaty to end the more than six-decade conflict that has defied two decades of U.S. efforts to broker a solution.

View gallery."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas heads a Palestinian cabinet meeting in the West Bank city of Ram …

Still, the resumption of negotiations is a rare moment of good news in the Middle East for the Obama administration, which has struggled to formulate a policy to try to end the civil war in Syria or to facilitate a democratic transition in Egypt.

Even getting the Israelis and the Palestinians to agree to resume talks required great effort by Kerry, who made six peace-making trips to the region in the last four months - an unusual amount of time - to coax the two sides back.

The last piece of the puzzle came together when the Israeli Cabinet on Sunday approved the release of 104 Palestinian prisoners, with 13 ministers voting for the release, seven against and two abstaining, an Israeli official said.

In another sign of possible momentum, Martin Indyk, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel who directs the foreign policy program at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington, is expected to be named as the new U.S. envoy for Middle East peace, possibly as early as Monday, a source familiar with the matter said.

OBAMA'S INVOLVEMENT NEEDED?

View gallery."

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem July 28, …

The last round of direct negotiations broke down in late 2010 in a dispute over Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank, land that Israel seized in a 1967 war, along with the Gaza Strip, which the Palestinians want for a state.

It is unclear how the United States hopes to bridge the core issues in the dispute, including borders, the future of Jewish settlements on the West Bank, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem.

While commending Kerry for his determination, Shibley Telhami, Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland, said President Barack Obama would have to get involved if the talks were ultimately to succeed and the United States would have to offer its own ideas for a solution.

"At some point, the central player in this saga is not going to be Netanyahu, it's not going to be Abu Mazen (Abbas), it's not going to be John Kerry, it's going to be Barack Obama," he said. "So far, it's not clear that ... the president is prepared to take the kind of risk that would move this forward."

The State Department said the initial talks were planned for 8 p.m. on Monday at an iftar - the evening meal at which Muslims break their daily Ramadan fast - that Kerry will host at the State Department. They are to be followed by talks on Tuesday.

View gallery."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (C) heads a cabinet meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah Ju …

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki suggested the talks in Washington would be to chart a path forward, rather than to leap directly into the thorny issues that need to be resolved.

After his latest round of shuttle diplomacy, Kerry announced on July 19 in Amman, Jordan, that the parties had laid the ground to resume negotiations on the so-called "final status" issues that must be resolved to end the dispute.

"The meetings in Washington will mark the beginning of these talks," Psaki said. "They will serve as an opportunity to develop a procedural work plan for how the parties can proceed with the negotiations in the coming months."

PRISONER DEAL

Earlier on Sunday, Netanyahu had urged divided rightists in his Cabinet to back the prisoner deal.

View gallery."

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) attends the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem July …

"This moment is not easy for me, is not easy for the Cabinet ministers, and is not easy especially for the bereaved families, whose feelings I understand," he said when the Cabinet met, referring to families who have lost members in militant attacks.

"But there are moments in which tough decisions must be made for the good of the nation and this is one of those moments."

Israeli Channel 1 television said prisoners would be released in three stages, depending on progress in the talks, with a group of Israeli citizens left until the last stage.

Abbas has demanded the release of prisoners held since before a 1993 interim peace accord took effect. Israel has jailed thousands more Palestinians since then, many for carrying out deadly attacks.

The prisoner release would allow Netanyahu to sidestep other Palestinian demands, such as a halt to Jewish settlement expansion and a guarantee that negotiations over borders will be based on boundaries from before the 1967 Middle East war, when Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.

View gallery."

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) arrives to the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem Ju …

Hundreds of protesters from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) staged a rally against the resumption of peace talks, clashing with police in the West Bank city of Ramallah, the seat of Abbas's Palestinian Authority.

PFLP activists also demonstrated in Gaza and chanted: "Listen Abbas, our land is not for sale. ... The (Palestinian) cause will never be resolved except by the rifle."

Aaron David Miller, a former U.S. peace negotiator who works for the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars think tank in Washington, said he was impressed by Kerry's tenacity.

"He has invested so much in this now, and even through expectations are so low, he is in an investment trap, he really can't let it fail now," Miller said. "Which means he'll have to go to extreme lengths to keep this thing afloat."

(Additional reporting by Allyn Fisher-Ilan and Ari Rabinovitch in Jerusalem, Ali Sawafta in Ramallah and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza; Editing by Alistair Lyon, Stacey Joyce and Paul Simao)

Montague Keen, July 28, 2013
Posted on July 29, 2013

OUR LIVES BEGIN TO END THE DAY WE BECOME SILENT ABOUT THINGS THAT MATTER
Martin Luther King

The awakened must come together to realise that they have both the strength and the ability to speak out. Your silence has allowed laws to be brought in that will endeavour to silence everyone who disagrees with the Cabal. Right now, every day is important. You cannot sit back and say, “They would never do that”. They are doing it !

They are actually building prisons where those they do not require will go. Many of you are blindly helping them to do just that, by saying, “It’s my job” or “I have a family to feed”. Although it is understandable, look at what you are helping to create for your family and for millions of other innocent families. You cannot close your eyes to what is being done, right in front of your noses. They are so confident, they do not bother to cloak their evil plans in secrecy. They see themselves as fully in control of humanity.

Every one of you has a voice, so use it. The 3-dimensional thinking that you have become accustomed to, must be discarded. This is strictly the mind, it is what you are taught, both by religions and by education: it is your prisoner. Your minds took over from your hearts and souls. You call it logical thinking but it is what keeps you a prisoner and under control. I ask of you, now, to learn to go into your hearts. It will give you a true picture of actual reality and what you can be instrumental in bringing about. Every assistance is available to you. You are not alone. You must take the first steps to extinguish the darkness from your reality.

Be aware that many who were on the path of light have been overshadowed, and may, at times, be giving the wrong information. You must stand firm in your truth. Your heart will be your guide. Many are going through such internal battles as they try to stay on their true path. The Dark Ones are losing ground and they are becoming more vicious in their attempts to hold on to power. Connect with your own Guardian Angel for protection and guidance. What you are living through at this time was planned. It is the final battle between the Lords of Light and the Lords of Darkness. In your hearts, you know that the light will remove all traces of the darkness. This is when the New Age begins and every country in your world will benefit. Peace will be restored.

Our plans for the future are great. We will disclose them on a need to know basis. Focus your minds on truth and do not be side-tracked, no matter how inviting the temptations are, to lure you away. What they promise is all illusion. They are mind-manipulators. Refuse to be taken in by them. Raise your vibration.

Love is the highest vibration. With love in your hearts, nothing can touch you and nothing can distract you. Never allow fear to enter your lives, and never allow it to prevent you from following your divine path. Everyone with a mission to carry out is being attacked, but you can overcome these obstacles, and when you do, you are all the stronger for it. When you live in a world where the darkness rules, you will be tested by what is done or what is threatened. You need to be strong, firm in your beliefs. You need also to understand when others are being attacked and you must support them. Help them to realise what is being done to them. Hold them in love and light.

Meditation will strengthen your connection to the light. Find the way that suits you best and it will help to keep you centered. Try to avoid the mindless rubbish that is all around you, vying for your attention. It is all part of the plan. Do not fall for it.

Ancient portals are becoming active once more. They will spread their light to invigorate the planet in preparation for what is to come. The future that you are creating at this time is of great importance for humanity and for your planet. Go into this with your eyes wide open in the sure knowledge that you are on the right path. You will be instrumental in removing all weapons of destruction from the planet: the killing will cease, all wars will cease, and armies will then be used to reconstruct all that they were so instrumental in destroying. Feeding the world will be a priority. It can be done quickly and efficiently. We have given much thought to everything that needs to be done. As we see the full picture, we are in a position to guide and assist. This is a combined effort, with both sides of life, coming together to rescue humanity and the planet from the dark forces that have engulfed it and are trying to destroy it.

Look to the time when all darkness is removed and your planet is restored, when all of humanity comes together to live as one in peace and harmony. In order to bring this about, you may be asked to make sacrifices, or struggle a little, but nothing will be asked of you that you cannot readily cope with.

When you stand for truth, nothing can get in your way. Just keep in mind that you are in a battle that you will win. Sometimes, battle plans need to be changed, so what it is necessary to alter will be altered, as nothing is set in stone.

We are on the right path and that is what matters. Our numbers increase each day, as more countries open up to the truth. Know that each and every one of you, is welcome and valued. You are each a part of the whole. How nice it will be, when all barriers are removed, and people live as one, all sharing experiences on Planet Earth. It will not be long now.

On a personal level, you are making progress and we share your excitement. You are never too old to learn. I thank those who are advising you. They were chosen for this task. Support with love and kindness, those around you who are battling with the Dark Forces. Hold them in the light. Hold them in love. I ask everyone to please do this, for those who are under attack and are struggling to come out the other side.

I am ever at your side. My love for you will never die. I remain your adoring, Monty.

Pope Francis gives a press conference on the flight back to Italy after his tour of Brazil Photo: EPA/LUCA ZENNARO

Stephen: OK, he’s really pushing the boundaries now. Even if today’s ‘gay acceptance’ comes with some conditions, it’s a big step forward by a previously stoically anti-gay church. Could it be the carefree, carnival atmosphere of Brazil… or simply the new energies and his divine purpose?

By AP – The Telegraph. UK – July 29. 2013

http://tinyurl.com/n5n7at7

Pope Francis is reaching out to gays, saying he will not judge priests for their sexual orientation, in a remarkably open and wide-ranging news conference as he returns from Brazil.

In a broad-ranging 80-minute conversation with journalists on the plane bringing him back from a week-long visit to Brazil, the Pope also said the Roman Catholic Church’s ban on women priests was definitive, although he would like them to have more leadership roles in administration and pastoral activities.

The Pope defended gays from discrimination in what was his first news conference since being elected pontiff in March, but also referred to the Catholic Church’s universal Catechism, which says that while homosexual orientation is not sinful homosexual acts are.

“If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge him?” the Pope said.

“The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains this very well. It says they should not be marginalized because of this (orientation) but that they must be integrated into society,” he said, speaking in Italian.

“The problem is not having this orientation. We must be brothers. The problem is lobbying by this orientation, or lobbies of greedy people, political lobbies, Masonic lobbies, so many lobbies. This is the worse problem,” he said.

The Pope was answering a question about reports of a “gay lobby” in the Vatican.

“You see a lot written about the gay lobby. I still have not seen anyone in the Vatican with an identity card saying they are gay,” he joked.

Addressing the issue of women priests, the Pope said, “The Church has spoken and says ‘no’ … that door is closed.” It was the first time he had spoken in public on the subject.

“We cannot limit the role of women in the Church to altar girls or the president of a charity, there must be more …,” he said in answer to a question during a remarkably frank conversation with Vatican journalists.

“But with regards to the ordination of women, the Church has spoken and says no. Pope John Paul said so with a formula that was definitive. That door is closed,” he said referring to a document by the late pontiff which said the ban was part of the infallible teaching of the Church.

The Church teaches that it cannot ordain women because Jesus willingly chose only men as his apostles. Advocates of a female priesthood say he was acting according to the customs of his times.

Many in the Church, even those who oppose a female priesthood, say women should be given leadership roles in the Church and the Vatican administration.

The Pope arrived back in Rome on Monday after a triumphant week-long tour of Brazil which climaxed with a huge gathering on Rio de Janeiro’s famed Copacabana beach for a world Catholic youth festival which organisers estimated to have attracted more than 3 million people.