Skunk Spray Neutralizer Also Fights Odors In Kitchen

Readers repeatedly ask for the recipe for the solution that neutralizes skunk spray (1 gallon water, 1 pint hydrogen peroxide, 1/4 cup baking soda). Washington State University professor John Fellman says that the solution also neutralizes odors in the kitchen.

In a recent e-mail, the chemist said it works “to remove onion odors from surfaces and from fruit and vegetable refrigerated storages.”

Sponge on the solution and rinse thoroughly with water, he says.

Remember that because it contains hydrogen peroxide, the solution has a bleaching effect. Some readers who used it on their dogs were surprised their dark-colored dogs ended up with reddish fur for awhile.

* New on the market: Another new book for bird watchers has joined a long list of books for this group. “Birder’s Handbook: How to Locate, Observe, Identify, Photograph, and Study Birds,” by Stephen W. Kress (DK Publishing, $24.95), is endorsed by the National Audubon Society.

The hardcover book is not a field guide, though. It’s designed for reading and research and as a learning tool. The content ranges from tips for taking field notes to a discussion of bird families, subfamilies and species. Included are maps with birding hot spots, but this feature shouldn’t tempt bird watchers to buy the book: According to this book, all of Eastern Washington and North Idaho is devoid of birding hot spots.

The Northwest map sends birders to Nisqually Wildlife Refuge near Olympia or to Malheur in southeast Oregon.

As a reference book with an academic flavor, though, “Birder’s Handbook” is quite accessible.

* News from afar: Blackbird fans in the Midwest are miffed by a U.S. Department of Agriculture program to reduce blackbird populations in farming regions.

Farmers in the northern Great Plains complain that they lose a substantial portion of their lucrative sunflower crop each year to swarms of migrating blackbirds. According to a report in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Department of Agriculture poisons the birds and hopes to wipe out as many as 2 million blackbirds this year.

* Backyard journal: From first light to last light, frazzled bluebird parents constantly come and go from the bluebird box, always returning with a caterpillar or insect in their beaks. The loud chattering of the hungry, nearly grown brood only seems to spur them on in greater frenzy.