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This cute bird is a palm warbler, one of about 20 species of warblers that fly to or through Marco and the Everglades this time of year. The Palm Warblers usually stay here all winter.

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“They’re all over the place, these warblers,” says Doug Suitor of the Collier County Environmental Services Department.

He’s talking about the 20 or so different types of warblers — delightful, bouncy little birds that you’ll see on insect searches in your lawn or on the power lines or swooping here and there, warbling their way around town.

Actually the peak warbler migration season here is just past, but stragglers may still be in town and some, including the palm warblers, the yellow rumps, pine warblers mostly spend the winter here, as their cousins with other names others keep going south.

The most common ones that are just passing through are the black-throated greens and the ovenbirds. Ovenbirds?

“They’re dapper, attractive little things, so named because they build a little Dutch over-type nest,” says suitor. “It looks a little like an igloo or a little dome, like the old-fashioned brick ovens. These warblers are different from others in that they’re more terrestrial.” That is, they spend a lot of time on the ground.

It’s quite a trip, from the Arctic to Wisconsin, Maine and south from there.

“They fly thousands of miles, down the Atlantic flyway, down the east coast, and some are gulf migrants,” notes Suitor. Some of these birds stay in the Everglades, avoiding the coastal areas.

One example of their lifestyles is the blackpoll warbler. It breeds in northern Canada and Alaska and migrates every year from there to the New England coast, out to Bermuda then down to South America.

They stop along the way, eating enough bugs and other stuff to almost double their weight to fuel their trip — about 2,300 miles each way.

Have we told you more than you need to know about warblers? If so, OK, but if not you can get more interesting warbler information at these Web sites: audubonofflorida.org, birds.cornell.edu andnationalgeographic.com.

Local, easy to arrange holiday treat for our troops overseas

Because Marco has a local AT&T Wireless office at Town Center Mall, it’s especially easy this year to give something of real value to our troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere around the world.

The project is called “AT&T Care to Connect. We can go in and give $1, $5 or $10 toward prepaid phone cards for military men and women. AT&T then will match the total dollars collected here and around the country by Dec. 21 and will double the amount of phone cards sent to the troops.

“As we honor veterans today, we’re also inviting our customers — and all wireless users — to join our mission to help connect military families with free phone calls,” says Ralph de la Vega, president of AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets.

“As many veterans will tell you, one of the most precious gifts military members receive when separated from their loved ones — any time of year — is a call with friends or family. With the holidays around the corner, we know those calls will soon be more precious than ever. Whether you support the troops through AT&T Care to Connect, by recycling an old phone — or both — you’re helping connect more military families with more free calls.”

In the past two years, AT&T has donated prepaid phone cards with a retail value of more than $4 million to help support U.S. military members and their families.

The company also has built 70 calling centers for military members stationed in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan, so that they may stay in touch with their families.

For those here on Marco not sure where the AT&T Wireless store is, just park in front of Island Drug in Town Center Mall and you’ll see it right there.

I’d love to see that small office jammed with donors in the coming days.

When time seems to stand still

Have you ever wondered why time seems to slow down during moments of panic or even high tension?

Say you’re driving merrily along Collier Boulevard when suddenly the driver in front of you slams on his brakes. You react quickly and hit your brakes too, but doesn’t it seem like an eternity from the time your foot moves to the time the car stops safely?

Suppose your child is in a spelling bee at Tommie Barfield School. From the time the moderator gives the word, let’s say it’s “sesquipedalian,” until your progeny very slowly spells it correctly, doesn’t it seem a lifetime? Why is that?

Here’s one possibility, being studied by scientists at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. It may be that human brains record more memories than usual during moments of panic, terror or extreme tension.

If true, the scientists say, it could help explain the “time warp” feeling. It could also explain why when we run out of ideas for columns, it seems to take forever to get back into the groove. That or our brains just go on sabbatical without the rest of us.

Email: chris@chriscurle.com, don@donfarmer.com.