April 24, 2025: Brother bird

Today is for the brothers and the birds, not a bee in sight.Well, seeing actually factors into it, too! We head to Amherst where, on a particularly idyllic corner of the UMass campus, hordes of migratory birds are making their way back north. Professor Nathan Senner grabs binoculars and his trusty dog, Oliver, to head out into the woods to discover the many feathered friends that are finding their way home. He enlightens us to the ways that the campus itself is posing problems to conservation efforts, the methods they’re experimenting with to make the school’s landscape a bit safer for the traveling birds and how you can help.And, in Florence at the Bombyx Center for Arts and Equity, prose, theater and pie are coming together on stage this weekend. The Florence Poetry Carnival is bringing in Brother’s Keeper Poetry Ensemble as the featured literary artists for “Poetry and Pie.” We speak with founding member Marlon Carey about the group’s work, the melding of their styles on stage and the clandestine meeting between him and the carnival’s founder.And, although we don't have a chance to chat with Congressman Jim McGovern, our hearts and sympathies are with him as his family navigates recent tragedy. Note: The comic artist Kaliis mentioned with illustrations of bird calls is Rosemary Mosco.