Page 8 - Mark Faherty News Today

Film fest screen story of cancer researcher Woods Hole Film Festival will continue its virtual screening series with the documentary “Jim Allison: Breakthrough,” by filmmaker Bill Haney and narrated by Woody Harrelson. The 2019 film is a story of one man’s quest to find a cure for cancer. Allison won the 2018 Nobel Prize for discovering the immune system’s role in defeating the disease after a decades-long struggle against medical skepticism and the resistance of the pharmaceutical indu...

Kevin Friel stood on the side of Thomas Landers Road in Falmouth looking skyward.  It was a soggy April afternoon, and cement truck after cement truck rumbled past en route to construction companies further down the road, drowning out the calls of a pair of ospreys circling a nest atop a utility pole beside the Route 28 overpass. Every few minutes, the birds soared over the nest to drop the sticks they carried in their hooked talons. They were preparing the nest — balanced on two parallel...

Birds whove stayed here all winter This month the volume is up, in the soundscape of birds. Morning and evening calls have greatly increased and will crescendo right into June. Our hearty non-migratory birds are in full chorus: you can hear chickadees, titmice, cardinals, mourning doves, woodpeckers and lots of others calling, before the migrant warblers and orioles show up next month. Mark Faherty, wildlife biologist at the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary joins our host Mindy Todd and listen...

Prothonotary Warbler Early spring is a time of many firsts for the nature watcher. Sometimes slowly, sometimes in bursts, locally slumbering critters are coming online every day. Many of us heard our first spring peepers this past week, a welcome auditory sign of spring. On Saturday alone, when a happy coincidence of good weather and a day-off allowed me to leave my house, I racked up my first butterflies (mourning cloak and cabbage white), first wood frogs, first snake (garter snake), and fir...

An owl in Marks backyard. For several years we’ve had a vacancy in a small, detached apartment on our property. Occasionally, an unwanted squatter would move in and cause trouble, but lately it’s been available. We’ve been looking for a very specific type to move in – relatively quiet during the day, maybe works nights, comfortable with small spaces – at less than one square foot, this apartment isn’t right for just any family. Finally, last week, we got the tenant we were looking ...

WCAI Features Local programming is a big part of what makes WCAI unique. Every week our feature contributors bring you stories and insights from around the Cape, Islands, and South Coast. Listen for them during Morning Edition and All Things Considered, or explore them here online. Each is also available as a podcast.

When it comes to late winter on Cape Cod, and the knowledge that beach weather is still four months away, it’s the little signs of better things to come

Get Growing with Mickey Rathbun: Bluebirds and beavers Eastern Bluebird. —FOR THE GAZETTE/CHUCK STERN The Eastern bluebird population has increased significantly in recent decades. FOR THE GAZETTE/CHUCK STERN Beaver lodges in the marsh off the rail trail in Amherst by Station Rd. —STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS Beaver lodges in the marsh off the rail trail in Amherst by Station Road. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS Beaver lodges in the marsh off the rail trail in Amherst by Station Rd. —STAFF PHOT...

It's the monthly Bird News program on The Point: wildlife biologist Mark Faherty brings us the latest of the season's birding highlights (and reports on

  If there’s one thing you can count on each December, it’s counting. It’s when we hold the counts during which we count all the birds we can count. I’m talking about last weekend’s annual Cape Cod Waterfowl count as well as the various Christmas Bird Counts that begin this weekend. At last count, there were at least nine such counts in the CAI listening area, ten if you count the boat-based Stellwagen Bank count. So you know there’s a count near you.    Cape Cod Bird Club’s an...