Conservation, S'il vous plaît.

With the partial government shutdown still going on, our national parks are going unstaffed except for a few rangers driving through. We've all read stories of the western parks getting full of trash, but my observations of Shenandoah National Park are not so sad. When I was there on Saturday, I did not see any litter, although plenty of visitors were there, enjoying the scenery and taking advantage of the temporarily free admission.

After a dental appointment on Monday, I drove to Elizabeth Furnace Recreation Area in the National Forest. It was not so clean, although the litter looked like it was pretty much the fault of a small number of beer drinkers and smokers. I picked up trash in three parking lots, filling two plastic grocery bags, which really isn't a lot considering that the road through there is heavily used by locals as well as outdoors enthusiasts.

Please don't leave your trash on the ground, people.

On a more pleasant note, it's Wild Bird Wednesday!

My wildlife camera captured me filling the bird feeders.

The birds shown here are a white-throated sparrow, a Carolina wren, and a Northern Cardinal.