Thanks to all you rabble-rousing Tweets (great to hear your voice again,
Don B!) for the delightful thread--sorry I'm just coming in at "ground"
level.

Wallis Bolz was right on: "Birding without an interest in habitat and a
commitment to its preservation is reprehensible." And I also agree with
Maureen Ellis's excellent post, which I hope speaks for many, many
bird-lovers in Washington and elsewhere, in which she makes the point
that coffee discussions have *everything* to do with Washington birds.

We won't have any songbirds to enjoy if we'd rather not think or
talk--and yes! even argue--about the destruction of their habitats in
South America. It seems best to listen now before their voices become
fewer and fewer--and those speaking in behalf of these songbirds have
been doing so for years (coffee growers began to increase their crop
yields twenty years ago by clearing forests and planting in the sun.)
Thank goodness more and more people are listening these days, though
there are still those who pooh-pooh the whole subject (Dave Stiles among
them?) as scare tactics.

Well, I *am* scared and not ashamed to admit it. I'm not willing to
risk losing a natural resource as valuable and precious as songbirds,
either, on the chance that over-zealous environmentalists are simply
playing Chicken Little! The fact that songbird populations (as well as
those of other flora and fauna) are adversely affected by sun-grown
coffee practices is not junk science; the data are there for any thinking
person to see.

Just for starters (general information about shade- and sun-grown coffee
plantations and their effects on migratory bird populations), check out
the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center's "Why Migratory Birds are Crazy
for Coffee." (One of the other Tweets [Jane Hadley?] mentioned the
Smithsonian's web site, which I imagine has this info about migratory
birds and the coffee connection. The Seattle Audubon Society might also
have the same publication, as well as info about "Partners in Flight.")
This info sheet contains enough introductory material to scare anyone who
cares about migratory songbirds into swearing off coffee. But there's no
need to go that far! Not as long as we become more conscientious and
buy from growers who continue to use traditional farm methods. Indeed,
traditional shade plantations in Latin America "are often critical
refuges protecting forest species [including songbirds, insects,
amphibians, and orchids] where there is no longer any forest."

So, we can "have" our cuppa Joe and our oriole, too. And our vireos...
and our warblers......

---Lisa <subplot at juno.com>
Seattle WA