On Tuesday morning, I was listening to President Bush’s press conferenceon the radio as I drove to work. He once again had me frustrated that not once in his years in office has he made an effort to be my president - what's new. But this bit really got my attention:

The Department of Energy estimates that ANWR could allow America to produce about a million additional barrels of oil every day, which translates to about 27 millions of gallons of gasoline and diesel every day. That would be about a 20-percent increase of oil -- crude oil production over U.S. levels, and it would likely mean lower gas prices. And yet such efforts to explore in ANWR have been consistently blocked.

snip

Well, I'm hoping now people, when they say "ANWR," means you don't care about the gasoline prices that people are paying.

Below the fold, I’ll explain why.

Summer solstice in the Arctic Refuge.

Spring is bustin’ out all over the Sacramento Valley. We’ve said farewell to the geese, swans, and cranes who spend their winters here. Now, we’ve got our binocs trained on the resident birds showing off their glorious breeding plumage while singing and dancing their hearts out in their annual fertility waltz, and on the migrants gorging themselves on the Valley’s bounty in preparation for the rest of their journey to their breeding grounds further north.

Note: lineatus is on a birding adventure this weekend but will be back next Saturday for Dawn Chorus at the usual time and place.