SPRING SIGNS: The peepers are back, a hummingbird’s been sighted
– we even saw a lamb gamboling.[neWLine]

Now it’s the Baltimore orioles. Ida Anderson, who lives off
Clarks Lane, called to report that only a half hour after putting
out her bird feeder Wednesday, a Baltimore oriole showed
up.[neWLine]

“”I was so happy to see the oriole,”” she said. “”I’m still
waiting for a hummingbird, though.””[neWLine]

Down at the southern end of the county, however, Vic Lantz
reports he has had his first hummer along with a Baltimore oriole
and a rose-breasted grosbeak.[neWLine]

Vic, the retired postmaster in Mount Jewett, tells us they all
arrived Wednesday. “”They are coming earlier every year,”” he said.
Global warming perhaps?[neWLine]

[neWLine]

SMALL WORLD: Carolyn Yetto got a tiny taste of home in New York
City last weekend.[neWLine]

Carolyn, traveling with a group of friends from Kane, was
touring the Empire State building. They were waiting for the
elevator after taking pictures from the 80th floor observation
deck. One member of the party pointed out the brick on the building
– Hanley Brick, manufactured so many years at the Lewis Run
company.[neWLine]

[neWLine]

BEE BUZZ: “”Give me a buzz,”” that familiar alternative for
“”Call me,”” takes on a whole new meaning in light of recent
research that shows that cell phone radiation may actually be
killing bees.[neWLine]

According to research from Landau University, cell phones might
be contributing to Colony Collapse Disorder, the fancy name given
to the malady affecting large numbers of bees who will are failing
to return to their hives.[neWLine]

The research showed that when scientists placed cell phones near
hives, the bees refused to go inside. That means the pollen they
collect from flowers won’t be stored in the hive, used to feed the
bees inside and produce honey. The bees, instead, went off to die
alone.[neWLine]

And with no bees, no honey – and no pollination. Bees, as pesky
as they can be at a picnic, pollinate half the world’s
crops.[neWLine]

News stories are reporting that the West Coast has already lost
60 percent of its commercial bee population and the East Coast, 70
percent.[neWLine]

If the research is true, then our technological convenience over
a few years has managed to disrupt a natural cycle that’s lasted
for 100 million years, according to scientists.[neWLine]

So the message might be: Save a bee, use a land line.