As more children emerge from the pandemic grappling with mental health issues, their parents are seeking ways for them to build emotional resilience. 

And toy companies are paying close attention. 

While still in its early phase, a growing number of toy marketers are embracing MESH — or mental, emotional and social health — as a designation for toys that teach kids skills like how to adjust to new challenges, resolve conflict, advocate for themselves, or solve problems. 

The acronym was first used in child development circles and by the American Camp Association 10 years ago and gained new resonance after the pandemic. Rachele Harmuth, head of ThinkFun, a division of toy company Ravensburger, and resilience expert and family physician Deborah Gilboa, formed a MESH taskforce earlier this year with the goal of getting manufacturers to design toys with emotional resilience in mind and to have retailers market them accordingly. 

“We just need to educate parents and educators just a little bit to know that we could be using their play time a little bit intentionally,” Gilboa said. 

The plan is to certify MESH toys by mid-2024 the same way the Toy Association did for STEAM toys, which emphasize science, tech, engineering, arts, and math. Adrienne Appell, a spokeswoman at the Toy Association, notes that MESH is an area it will continue to monitor as it evolves. 

Many toys that could be considered MESH happen to already be in children’s toy chests — like memory games, puppets, certain types of Legos, Pokémon trading games, and Dungeons & Dragons. The concept was highlighted at the toy industry’s recent four-day annual show in New York, which featured an abundance of toys from the likes of hand2mind and Open the Joy that encourage children to express their feelings with mirrors or puppets. 

James Zahn, editor- in-chief of the trade publication the Toy Book, noted the bulk of the new toys being developed with MESH in mind will be out starting next year. 

But some worry the MESH approach might end up promising parents something it can’t deliver. There’s also a risk of companies preying on parents’ anxieties about their kids’ mental health. 

“My fear is that MESH will be used as the next marketing gimmick,” said Chris Byrne, an independent toy analyst. “It will create a culture of fear that their children are not developing socially and emotionally. And that’s not really the job of the toy industry. ” 

Experts say childhood depression and anxiety were climbing for years, but the pandemic’s unrelenting stress and grief magnified the woes, particularly for those already grappling with mental health issues who were cut off from counselors and other school resources during remote learning. Many educators began emphasizing social emotional learning in response, which teaches children soft skills like helping them manage their emotions and create positive rapport with others. 

Dave Anderson, vice president of school and community programs and a senior psychologist in the ADHD and Behavior Disorders Center at the Child Mind Institute, applauded the toy industry’s efforts to likewise address emotional resilience. But he said parents need to be careful about claims that companies may be making. While there’s evidence that skills highlighted by the MESH taskforce can build resilience, there’s no evidence that the toys themselves will, he said. 

“The concepts are evidence based; the toys themselves are not,” he said. 

Bryne notes that the skills being highlighted by the MESH taskforce are the basics of play, whether it’s skateboarding that builds perseverance or learning how to share toys to help with conflict resolution. 

“In my opinion, if you live in a healthy home and you’re having healthy play and your parents are engaged, the MESH stuff kind of happens automatically, ” he said. 

The U.S. toy industry itself has been in need of a jolt following a weak year, particularly a lackluster holiday 2022 season when retailers were stuck with a surplus of toys after enjoying a pandemic-induced toy splurge by parents. The malaise has continued so far this year, with toy sales in the U.S. down 8% from January through August, based on Circana’s retail tracking service data. 

For its part, the MESH taskforce is initially working with specialty stores like Learning Express and small toy companies like Crazy Aaron’s, which has expanded beyond its Thinking Putty to add activity kits that teach kids problem solving like how magnets work with putty. One game ThinkFun is marketing: Rush Hour, a sliding block logic game that has kids battle traffic gridlock. 

But large retailers like Amazon are also waking up to the MESH approach. 

“The rising popularity of MESH toys speaks to the power of play and the important role that toys play in our lives,” said Anne Carrihill, Amazon’s director of toys and games. 

Richard Derr, owner of the Learning Express franchise in Lake Zurich, Illinois, said that he trained his workers on helping parents this past spring to pick the right toys. But the challenge is not to scare parents. 

“You don’t want to rush up to somebody and say, ‘Hey, how’s your mental health today of your kids?'” Derr said. “That’s why local toy stores are a great place to start because of our relationships with the community, customers and teachers.” 

But he noted toymakers can’t be overusing the word MESH without any meaning. 

Sarah Davis, the mother of three boys ages 3, 6 and 9, is open to the idea of MESH toys. The Great Falls, Virginia resident said her 6-year-old had delayed speech because he was wearing a mask during the heart of the pandemic, while her 9-year-old son has some issues with social interaction after being isolated and glued to his laptop. 

“My kids don’t have an issue with anxiety in terms of school,” she said, but added. “I still worry about the long-term effects of what that was like.” 

More than the promise of building emotional resilience through MESH is whether the toys themselves will actually be fun. 

“Are my kids going to ask for those kind of toys for Christmas?” Davis asked. “I’m going to be really curious and I will keep an eye out for them.” 
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First came the darkening skies, then the crescent-shaped shadows on the ground, and finally an eruption of cheers by crowds that gathered Saturday along the narrow path of a rare “ring of fire” eclipse of the sun. 

It was a spectacular show for some parts of the western United States as the moon moved into place and the ring formed. 

There were hoots, hollers and yelps for those with an unfettered view in Albuquerque, where the celestial event coincided with an international balloon fiesta that typically draws tens of thousands of spectators and hundreds of hot air balloon pilots from around the world. 

They got a double treat, with balloons lifting off during a mass ascension shortly after dawn and then the eclipse a couple hours later. Organizers had 80,000 pairs of view glasses on hand for the massive crowd and some pilots used their propane burners to shoot flames upward in unison as the spectacle unfolded. 

Allan Hahn of Aurora, Colorado, has attended the festival for 34 years, first as a crew member and then as a licensed balloon pilot. His balloon, Heaven Bound Too, was one of 72 selected for a special “glow” performance as skies darkened. 

“It’s very exciting to be here and have the convergence of our love of flying with something very natural like an eclipse,” he said. 

Unlike a total solar eclipse, the moon doesn’t completely cover the sun during a ring of fire eclipse. When the moon lines up between Earth and the sun, it leaves a bright, blazing border. 

Saturday’s path: Oregon, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and Texas in the U.S., with a sliver of California, Arizona and Colorado. Next: Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Brazil. Much of the rest of the Western Hemisphere gets a partial eclipse. 

Viewing all depends on clear skies — part of the U.S. path could see clouds. NASA and other groups livestreamed it. 

The event brought eclipse watchers from around the U.S. to remote corners of the country to try to get the best view possible. At Bryce Canyon National Park in southern Utah tiny lights could be seen along a well-known trail that snakes through a valley of red rock hoodoos as eclipse enthusiasts hit the trail before sunrise to stake out their preferred spots in nooks and crannies along the way. 

With the ring of fire in full form, cheers echoed through the canyons of the park as if the home team just hit a home run. 

“I just think it’s one of those things that unites us all,” said John Edwards, a cancer drug developer who traveled alone across the country to try to watch the eclipse from Bryce Canyon. “I just think it’s seeing these unique experiences that come rarely is what got me here. This is about as rare as it gets.” 

Kirby James and Caroline McGuire from Toronto didn’t realize they would be in a prime spot to watch the eclipse when they planned their trip to southern Utah. Their luck led to what McGuire called an “epic, epic” at the national park. 

“Nothing that you can read could prepare you for how it feels,” said Kirby James, 63, a co-founder of a software company. “It’s the moment, especially when the ring of fire came on, you realized you were having a lifetime experience.” 

For the small towns and cities along the path, there was a mix of excitement, worries about the weather and concerns they’d be overwhelmed by visitors flocking to see the annular solar eclipse. 

As totality began in Eugene, Oregon, oohs and ahs combined with groans of disappointment as the eclipse was intermittently visible, the sun’s light poking through the cloud cover from behind the moon only at times. 

Koren Marsh and her parents drove five hours from Seattle to be within the path of the eclipse. Making the trip to see the ring of fire was part of the celebrations for her 16th birthday. Despite the poor viewing weather, she said it was still cool to witness totality as it peeked between the clouds. 

“I’m underwhelmed but I wouldn’t say I’m disappointed,” she said. “It was worth it to me because I like science.” 

Viewers on the East Coast were prepared to see less of the event — close to a quarter eclipse around midday in some areas, such as New York City — but were nonetheless geared up to watch the skies. In Maine, viewers expected to see only about 12% of the sun covered, but the Clark Telescope on the grounds of the Versant Power Astronomy Center at the University of Maine was open to the public. 

“As the moon passes between the Earth and the sun, it casts its shadow on our planet. In a very real sense, solar eclipses are ‘made in the shade’ of the moon,” said Shawn Laatsch, director of the Versant Power Astronomy and the Maynard Jordan Planetarium. 

Colombia’s Tatacoa desert was playing host to astronomers helping a group of visually impaired people experience the eclipse through raised maps and temperature changes as the moon blots out the sun. 

At the Cancun Planetarium, young visitors built box projectors to indirectly and safely view the ring of fire. The ancient Maya — who called eclipses “broken sun” — may have used dark volcanic glass to protect their eyes, said archeologist Arturo Montero of Tepeyac University in Mexico City. 

Brazil’s Pedra da Boca state park, known for its rocky outcrops for climbing and rappelling was expecting crowds. 

The entire eclipse — from the moment the moon starts to obscure the sun until it’s back to normal — is 2 1/2 to three hours at any given spot. The ring of fire portion lasts from three to five minutes, depending on location. 

Next April, a total solar eclipse will crisscross the U.S. in the opposite direction. That one will begin in Mexico and go from Texas to New England before ending in eastern Canada. 

The next ring of fire eclipse is in October next year at the southernmost tip of South America. Antarctica gets one in 2026. It will be 2039 before another ring of fire is visible in the U.S., and Alaska will be the only state in its direct path. 
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In an ongoing legal battle with the Biden administration over a Nevada lithium mine, environmentalists are poised to return to court with a new approach accusing U.S. wildlife officials of dragging their feet on a year-old petition seeking endangered species status for a tiny snail that lives nearby.

The Western Watersheds Project said in its formal notice of intent to sue that the government’s failure to list the Kings River pyrg as a threatened or endangered species could push it to the brink of extinction.

It says the only place the snail is known to exist is in 13 shallow springs near where Lithium Americas is building its Thacker Pass Mine near the Oregon line.

President Joe Biden has made ramped-up domestic production of lithium a key part of his blueprint for a greener future. Worldwide demand for the critical element in the manufacture of electric vehicle batteries is projected to increase six-fold by 2030 compared with 2020.

Past lawsuits filed by conservationists and tribes have taken aim — largely unsuccessfully — at the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management, which they accused of cutting regulatory corners to expedite approval of the mine itself in 2021.

The new approach targets the department’s Fish and Wildlife Service, charged with ensuring protection of fish and wildlife habitat surrounding the mine site 321 kilometers northeast of Reno.

Western Watersheds Project says groundwater pumping associated with the mine’s 113-meter open pit will reduce or eliminate flows to the springs that support the snails.

In the formal 90-day notice of intent to sue sent to Interior Secretary Deborah Haaland last month, they say her agency’s failure to make a 12-month finding on the listing petition filed in September 2022 is a violation of the Endangered Species Act.

“The Fish and Wildlife Service isn’t supposed to sit on its hands while species are in imminent danger of extinction, but the fact that it hasn’t met the deadlines on the pyrg raises questions about why they might be delaying,” Adam Bronstein, the project’s Nevada director, said in a statement.

“It would be absolutely unacceptable if the Biden Administration is waiting until it’s too late to save the species so as not to interrupt the construction of a lithium mine,” he said.

Interior Department spokesperson Melissa Schwartz said in an email Thursday the department had no comment on the group’s intent to sue.

Western Watersheds Project said time is of the essence because the snails were imperiled even before any new mining was contemplated due to livestock grazing, round-building and, increasingly, the anticipated impacts of climate change.

“The species has no regulatory protection whatsoever … because it is not an endangered species, or even a Bureau of Land Management-listed Sensitive species, and has no state law protections,” the notice said.

Conservationists and tribal lawyers claimed a partial victory last year when U.S. District Judge Miranda Du concluded the bureau failed to fully comply with new interpretations of the 1872 Mining Law. But she stopped short of blocking the project, allowing construction to begin as the bureau shored up plans for disposal of waste rock.

The opponents appealed, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Du’s ruling in July.

The tiny snail’s shell is less than 2 millimeters tall. By comparison, a U.S. nickel coin is 1.95 millimeters thick. They’ve managed to survive in isolated springs, which are remnants of extensive waterways that have covered what is now dry land only to recede many times over the last 2 million years, the listing petition said.

The project says three of the springs are within a 1.6-kilometer buffer zone, the bureau established in its review of potential impacts of a 3-meter drawdown of the groundwater table, and the rest are less than 4.8 kilometers away.

“As drought frequency increases with climate change, the Kings River pyrg will be at high risk of extinction,” the letter to Haaland said. It notes that the Nevada Department of Wildlife considers the pyrg “extremely vulnerable to climate change.”

Lithium Americas had no comment on the notice of intent to sue the Fish and Wildlife Service, spokesperson Tim Crowley said. The company said when the listing petition was filed last year that it’s done extensive work to design a project that avoids impacts to the springs.

The Bureau of Land Management said earlier its environmental review of the project that it didn’t detect any of the snails “within the direct footprint of the project or any area likely to be adversely affected by the project.”
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Pfizer slashed its full-year revenue forecast by 13% and said Friday it will cut $3.5 billion worth of jobs and expenses due to lower-than-expected sales of its COVID-19 vaccine and treatment.

Pfizer earned record revenue in 2021 and 2022, topping $100 billion last year, after developing its vaccine Comirnaty with German partner BioNTech SE and antiviral treatment Paxlovid on its own. Last year, revenue from those two products exceeded $56 billion.

But annual vaccination rates have dropped sharply since 2021 and demand for treatments has dipped as population-wide immunity has increased from vaccines and prior infections. Pfizer and rivals have begun selling an updated COVID vaccine for this fall.

“We remain proud that our scientific breakthroughs played a significant role in getting the global health crisis under control,” Pfizer CEO Albert Boura said in a statement. “As we gain additional clarity around vaccination and treatment rates for COVID, we will be better able to estimate the appropriate level of supply to meet demand.”

The drugmaker said it now expects 2023 revenue of between $58 billion and $61 billion, down from its prior forecast of $67 billion to $70 billion. It said the reduction was solely due to lowered expectations for its COVID-19 products.

Pfizer said it will take a noncash charge of $5.5 billion in the third quarter to write off $4.6 billion of Paxlovid and $900 million of inventory write-offs and other charges for the vaccine.

The cost-cutting program, which will target savings of at least $3.5 billion annually by the end of 2024, will include layoffs, the company said, without providing details on how many jobs will be cut or from what areas. One-time costs to achieve the savings are expected to be around $3 billion.

Shares of the New York-based company were down about 7% in extended trading.

Pfizer slashed its forecast for sales of its antiviral COVID treatment Paxlovid by about $7 billion, including a noncash $4.2 billion revenue reversal, as it agreed to allow the return of 7.9 million courses purchased by the U.S. government. It had previously expected Paxlovid revenue of about $8 billion for the year.

Pfizer said that under a deal with the U.S. government, a credit for the returned Paxlovid doses will underwrite a program to supply the drug free-of-charge to uninsured and underinsured Americans through 2028 and to patients insured under the government’s Medicare and Medicaid programs through the end of next year.

Pfizer will also provide the U.S. government 1 million courses of Paxlovid for the Strategic National Stockpile.

The company expects the drug will become commercially available to people with private insurance on January 1.

Pfizer also cut full-year revenue expectations for the COVID vaccine by about $2 billion due to lower-than-expected vaccination rates.

Pfizer said its non-COVID products remain on track to achieve 6% to 8% revenue growth year over year in 2023.
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Following another month of record-breaking temperatures throughout the globe in September, the year 2023 is all but certain to be the warmest on record, a U.S. agency said Friday.

The unwelcome news comes as world leaders prepare to meet for the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Dubai in late November where phasing out fossil fuels, the main driver of human-caused climate change, will be top of the agenda.

“There is a greater than 99% probability that 2023 will rank as the warmest year on record,” the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in its monthly update.

The calculation was based on data gathered through September and on simulations of possible outcomes based on the historical record, from 1975 to present.

“September 2023 was the fourth month in a row of record-warm global temperatures,” said NOAA chief scientist Sarah Kapnick in a statement.

“Not only was it the warmest September on record, it was far and away the most atypically warm month of any in NOAA’s 174 years of climate keeping. To put it another way, September 2023 was warmer than the average July from 2001-2010.”

Significant climate anomalies and events included Storm Daniel, which brought strong winds and unprecedented rainfall to eastern Libya, triggering widespread destruction including burst dams that killed more than 10,000 people.

An extratropical cyclone dumped more than 300 millimeters (12 inches) of rain in 24 hours over Brazilian states, triggering landslides and flooding that killed 30.

The average global temperature for September was 2.59 degrees F (1.44 degrees C) above the 20th-century average of 59.0F (15.0C), according to the NOAA data. It was 0.83F (0.46C) above the previous record from September 2020.

Holding long-term warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels is seen as essential to avoid the most catastrophic consequences of climate change.

Africa, Europe, North America and South America each had their warmest September on record; Asia had its second warmest, while Oceana had its third warmest, according to the NOAA data.

In the poles, Antarctica had its warmest September, while the Arctic saw its second warmest.

September 2023 also set a record for the lowest global September sea ice extent on record.

The oceans, too, experienced record-high monthly global ocean surface temperatures for the sixth consecutive month.

Despite increasing extreme weather events and record-shattering global temperatures, greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise and fossil fuels remain subsidized to the tune of $7 trillion annually.
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Thousands of people marched the streets of Ghana’s capital last week to raise awareness of breast cancer. Event organizers aimed to dispel myths about breast cancer in Africa and encourage early detection for a cure. Senanu Tord reports from Accra. (Camera: Senanu Tord and Samuel Mintah)
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Packaging producers in Kenya have begun a campaign to collect each day 1,500 tonnes of empty beverage cartons and turn them into new products. Officials say the cartons account for 30 percent of the liquid packaging board produced in Kenya. Victoria Amunga reports from Thika, Kenya. Camera and edit: Jimmy Makhulo
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NASA on Wednesday showed off its first asteroid samples delivered last month by a spacecraft — the most ever returned to Earth.

Scientists and space agency leaders took part in the reveal at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The ancient black dust and chunks are from the carbon-rich asteroid named Bennu, almost 60 million miles away. NASA’s Osiris-Rex spacecraft collected the samples three years ago and then dropped them off sealed in a capsule during a flyby of Earth last month.

Scientists anticipated at least a cupful of rocks, far more than what Japan brought back from a pair of missions years ago. They’re still not sure about the exact quantity. That’s because the main sample chamber has yet to be opened, officials said.

“It’s been going slow and meticulous,” said the mission’s lead scientist, Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona.

Black dust and particles were scattered around the outside edge of the chamber, according to Lauretta.

“Already this is scientific treasure,” he said.

Besides carbon, the asteroid rubble holds water in the form of water-bearing clay minerals, said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
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In developing countries such as Nigeria, caregivers and parents of children with cerebral palsy struggle to support the children and deal with the stigma of the disorder. Gibson Emeka visits a mother in Abuja who has left everything to care for her son. Narrated by Salem Solomon.
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Tens of millions in the Americas will have front-row seats for Saturday’s rare “ring of fire” eclipse of the sun. 

What’s called an annular solar eclipse — better known as a ring of fire — will briefly dim the skies over parts of the western U.S. and Central and South America. 

As the moon lines up precisely between Earth and the sun, it will blot out all but the sun’s outer rim. A bright, blazing border will appear around the moon for as much as five minutes, wowing sky gazers along a narrow path stretching from Oregon to Brazil. 

The celestial showstopper will yield a partial eclipse across the rest of the Western Hemisphere. 

It’s a prelude to the total solar eclipse that will sweep across Mexico, the eastern half of the U.S. and Canada in six months. Unlike Saturday, when the moon is too far from Earth to completely cover the sun from our perspective, the moon will be at the perfect distance on April 8, 2024. 

Here’s what you need to know about the ring of fire eclipse, where you can see it and how to protect your eyes: 

What’s the path of the ‘ring of fire’ eclipse? 

The eclipse will carve out a swath about 210 kilometers wide, starting in the North Pacific and entering the U.S. over Oregon around 8 a.m. PDT Saturday. It will culminate in the ring of fire a little over an hour later. From Oregon, the eclipse will head downward across Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and Texas, encompassing slivers of Idaho, California, Arizona and Colorado, before exiting into the Gulf of Mexico at Corpus Christi. It will take less than an hour for the flaming halo to traverse the U.S. 

From there, the ring of fire will cross Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and finally, Brazil before its grand finale over the Atlantic. 

The entire eclipse — from the moment the moon starts to obscure the sun until it’s back to normal — will last 2 1/2 to three hours at any given spot. The ring of fire portion lasts from three to five minutes, depending on location. 

Where can the eclipse be seen? 

In the U.S. alone, more than 6.5 million people live along the so-called path of annularity, with another 68 million within 322 kilometers, according to NASA’s Alex Lockwood, a planetary scientist. “So, a few hours’ short drive and you can have over 70 million witness this incredible celestial alignment,” she said. 

At the same time, a crescent-shaped partial eclipse will be visible in every U.S. state, although just barely in Hawaii, provided the skies are clear. Canada, Central America and most of South America also will see a partial eclipse. The closer to the ring of fire path, the bigger the bite the moon will appear to take out of the sun. 

Can’t see it? NASA and others will provide a livestream of the eclipse. 

How to protect your eyes 

Be sure to use safe, certified solar eclipse glasses, Lockwood stressed. Sunglasses aren’t enough to prevent eye damage. Proper protection is needed throughout the eclipse, from the initial partial phase to the ring of fire to the final partial phase. 

There are other options if you don’t have eclipse glasses. You can look indirectly with a pinhole projector that you can make yourself, including one made with a cereal box. 

Cameras — including those on cellphones — binoculars, or telescopes need special solar filters mounted at the front end. 

Seeing double 

One patch of Texas near San Antonio will be in the cross-hairs of Saturday’s eclipse and next April’s, with Kerrville near the center. It’s one of the locations hosting NASA’s livestream. 

“Is the city of Kerrville excited? Absolutely!!!” Mayor Judy Eychner said in an email. “And having NASA here is just icing on the cake!!!” 

With Saturday’s eclipse coinciding with art, music and river festivals, Eychner expects Kerrville’s population of 25,000 to double or even quadruple. 

Where’s the total eclipse in April? 

April’s total solar eclipse will crisscross the U.S. in the opposite direction. It will begin in the Pacific and head up through Mexico into Texas, then pass over Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, the northern fringes of Pennsylvania and New York, and New England, before cutting across Canada into the North Atlantic at New Brunswick and Newfoundland. Almost all these places missed out during the United States’ coast-to-coast total solar eclipse in 2017. 

It will be 2039 before another ring of fire is visible in the U.S., and Alaska will be the only state then in the path of totality. And it will be 2046 before another ring of fire crosses into the U.S. Lower 48. That doesn’t mean they won’t be happening elsewhere: The southernmost tip of South America will get one next October, and Antarctica in 2026. 

Going after the science 

NASA and others plan a slew of observations during both eclipses, with rockets and hundreds of balloons soaring. 

“It’s going to be absolutely breathtaking for science,” said NASA astrophysicist Madhulika Guhathakurta. 

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Aroh Barjatya will help launch three NASA-funded sounding rockets from New Mexico’s White Sands Missile Range before, during and after Saturday’s eclipse. The goal is to see how eclipses set off atmospheric waves in the ionosphere nearly 320 kilometers up that could disrupt communications. 

Barjatya will be just outside Saturday’s ring of fire. And he’ll miss April’s full eclipse, while launching rockets from Virginia’s Wallops Island. 

“But the bittersweet moment of not seeing annularity or totality will certainly be made up by the science return,” he said. 
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October 14 is World Migratory Bird Day in the Southern Hemisphere. To better forecast bird migration, scientists are using machine learning and next-generation radar. The resulting “BirdCasts” offer new ways to help birds at risk. Shelley Schlender reports from the Rocky Mountain state of Colorado.
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