Raptor Wednesday and Gratitude

A new year of Backyard and Beyond is nothing without you, dear readers. And photo-viewers (I know some of you don’t bother with the words)!
Male American Kestrel on the lookout.
And on the… Zorkanian death ray? Actually, it’s an antenna on a MTA building. Relic TV antennas still dot the rooftops here. I can see five from the raptor command post. Our urban Kestrels love them: perching, preening, eating, copulating on them.
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Isn’t it amazing how corporate media has been so kind to Trump? Here’s analysis and fact-checking on his blithe ignorance about COVID-19. I don’t watch TV, so I don’t know how much of his naked stupidty is getting out there, but the incompetence of Trump corruption has never been more on display. His minions are prioritizing messaging, not health. 19 Dead in the U.S. so far (4:30pm EST Tuesday). He defunded the CDC. He shut the pandemic professionals out the NSC. He sent in unprotected workers to greet infected travelers. Until Monday, he had no idea that many people died annually from the regular flu and he wondered why the flu vaccine wouldn’t work against this novel coronavirus. Since Monday, he’s been publicly told four times that it will take more than a year to get a COVID-19 vaccine. He ran for office as an anti-vaxxer. Yesterday, he refused to allow moving images of an important briefing, only still photos. And the press continues to bow and scrape.