Volume 20, Number 31
Serving Durham, Middlefield and Rockfall
www.TownTimes.com
Friday, November 15, 2013
A soldier’s life recalled on Veterans Day By Mark Dionne Town Times
With no school on Veterans Day, Nov. 11, local schools held patriotic ceremonies the week before to recognize the service of veterans. At a ceremony at Memorial Middle School, seven veterans from Middlefield and Durham spoke about their own experiences in the military. Principal Kevin Brough introduced the guests and said he hoped on Veterans Day the students would reflect on their sacrifices. Each of the veterans addressed the students and described the realities of being a soldier. “It wasn’t what you see on television,” said Bill
Currlin, who served with the U.S. Army in Vietnam. “War is a terrible thing to happen to any country.” Currlin referred to the draft and young men having to leave families and jobs. Many civilians, Currlin said, are nervous talking to veterans and children sometimes don’t know what to say. Currlin said he always appreciates the simple remark, “Thank you for your service.” Decades of service and several wars were represented at Memorial School. Stan Atwell described transporting soldiers to and from the European Theater during World War II as a member Veterans from Durham and Middlefield, from left: Bill Currlin, Bill Glueck, Keith Lohmann, Al Smith, John Capega, Ken Kindschi, and Stan Atwell, described their years of service to See Soldiers / Page 25 students at a Memorial Middle School Veterans Day ceremony. | (Mark Dionne\Town Times)
On tour with an avid bird-watcher By Diana Carr
Special to Town Times
Olive Wysocki, of Durham, doesn’t know why she loves birds so much. She just does. Her passion for them began in 1996 when she went to Kenya. “There were huge numbers of birds there,” she said, “and they were absolutely beautiful. After that I started doing bird trips. There are so many colorful and beautiful birds in the world that you can’t help but like them.” Those trips have taken her to Africa, Australia, South America, Europe, Antarctica, and the Arctic. She goes with groups, led by a guide, that are sponsored by different birding companies. When she’s in her native England, she bird watches on her own. “Every country has its own beautiful birds,” Wysocki
birds nest in said. “There my backyard, are some a n d fe e d i n g outstanding their young. I ones in Costa like watching Rica. The their progress.” male quetzal’s Her three body is red bird feeders and green, draw an array and he has a of birds-chickwhite tail unadees, blue derneath 25jays, redinch green winged blackstreamers. birds, downy You wonder woodpeckers, how he can fly Costa Rica’s quetzal. and robins. through the | (Photo by Steve Bird) And bald eatrees with a gles and great tail that long.” In Antarctica Wysocki egrets fly overhead. She saw a colony of king pen- keeps squirrels out of the guins that stretched as far as feeders by putting baffles, the eye could see. “They’re which are hollow cylinders, in the water all year long,” on the poles; the squirrels she said, “and only come wind up in them instead of to shore to nest. The young in the feeders. She doesn’t don’t go into the water until feed the birds in the warm they get their adult feathers.” months, as then they have a Wysocki also bird watches natural supply of food. “But if you start feeding locally. “I enjoy watching the
them in the winter,” she said, “it’s important to continue feeding them for the rest of the season, because they come to depend on it. You can stop in the spring..” Birding clubs throughout the country do an annual spring count and December count, to determine which birds are going up or down in numbers, and which are new to the area. The most recent count done by the Litchfield Hills Audobon Society determined the total number of birds in the state to be 16,611. Connecticut’s state bird is the American robin. “Changing weather patterns are causing bird habits to change,” Wysocki said. “It’s warmer in the north now, so birds that normally would only go as far as Virginia are coming further north.” The white-throated spar-
row winters in the south and is replaced by the darkeyed junco (which comes from farther north) for the winter. In May, warblers pass through, going further north to nest. (The yellow warblers stay here.) The hummingbird is the smallest bird, and the only one seen in this region is the ruby-throated hummingbird. “Their migration route is huge for such a small bird,” Wysocki said. “The ruby-throated hummingbird can be found in the eastern part of the country and in western Canada. It winters as far south as Mexico and Panama.” Wysocki has no plans on slowing down. She hopes to go on a bird watching tour to Ghana in February. “Bird watching is my way of seeing the world,” she said. “I seldom go back to the same country.”