【推荐1】Tracee Herbaugh lives in the Boston area of Massachusetts. She thought she was alone in her backyard recently when she used the Merlin Bird ID app. She learned by listening that she was surrounded by more than 12 kinds of birds.

“Two birds identified by the app, veery (画眉鸟) and great homed owl, even had a red dot next to their names. The red dot means it is an unusual sighting.” Herbaugh wrote, “Who knew these birds could be in one yard?”

Cornell Lab of Ornithology is the maker of Merlin Bird ID. The app was released in 2014. At first, the app only identified birds by their photos through Photo ID. The user answered a series of questions about the photo to help identify the bird, such as date, area, color, and size. The app became popular during the pandemic, when people increasingly wanted to be outdoors.

In 2021, Cornell Lab added Sound ID to identify birds by their sound. In the United States alone, Merlin’s Sound ID can identify over 700 kinds of birds. More than 7 million people now use the Merlin Bird ID worldwide.

Alli Smith works on the Merlin project at Cornell Lab. Smith said bird watching by sound “opens up a whole new world” “Even if you cannot see the birds,” he added, “you can hear their beautiful songs and know they’re sharing your neighborhood.”

More than birds, Herbaugh said the app also helped her reconnect with people across the country. When Herbaugh shared her bird list on social media, two childhood friends who also used the app messaged her about it. Her relative in Montana shared a list of birds. And even her young children now quickly go for the app when they hear an unfamiliar bird call.

Herbaugh has identified 45 birds on her list so far. She said now her children are the ones driving her to get more on the bird list.

【推荐3】There are plenty of health benefits of spending time in the great outdoors. According to a study published in the International Journal of Environmental Health Research, people who grew up with access to nature may have better mental health as adults than those who did not.

To test their hypothesis (假设) ，researchers sent questionnaires to 3, 585 adults aged 18 to 75 in four European cities on topics such as how often they visited natural spaces as children and now as adults. Participants were also given psychological test to determine the state of their mental health in the last month. Adults with low levels of nature exposure during childhood saw “significantly worse” mental health issues and did not view natural spaces as much importance in adulthood as those who spent more time growing up outside.

Researchers say that their findings show the importance of childhood exposure to natural spaces as it relates to developing an appreciation of nature and healthy psychological state in adulthood.

This is particularly significant, because almost three-quarters of Europeans currently live in urban areas with little access to green spaces. That number is expected to increase to 80 percent in the next three decades. Mental health has been shown to be negatively influenced by urban environments due to exposure to noise, crowds and a lack of green spaces among other things. Children who lead inactive lifestyles are more likely to have a lower quality of life and physical health.

“Many children in Europe lead an indoor lifestyle, so it would be desirable to make natural outdoor environments available, attractive and safe for them to play in," said study author Mark Nieuwenhuijsen, director of ISGlobal's Urban Planning, Environment and Health Initiative. "We make a call on policymakers to improve the availability of natural spaces for children and green schoolyards."

【推荐1】Paris Baker is a 30-year-old mother who has two daughters, Kallie, nine, and Harper, five.

One day, the three were playing at home. Harper was playing mom, feeding her mother, then her teddy bear and finally herself. Suddenly, Paris started choking on a piece of cookie. Soon, the cookie was at the back of her throat. The two girls started hitting her back at once. After about a minute of hitting her back, Kallie went to call an ambulance as she started to worry. As she did this the other girl carried on doing what she had been doing and thankfully the cookie finally came up.

Paris was diagnosed (诊断) with motor neurone disease (MND) in 2017, and was told she had five years to live. The condition will gradually paralyse (使……瘫痪) her, leaving her trapped inside her body.

Due to her condition, she’s more likely to fall and has received serious injuries. She felt it was very important to teach her girls what to do in a dangerous situation she might be in. This included applying pressure to a bleeding wound, what to do if someone is choking and how to call emergency services.

The girls know that if their dad isn’t home and an emergency happens there are three steps. Step one is to ring 999, ask for an ambulance and give their address. Step two is to put their dogs in the garden, and step three is to open the front door for the emergency services.

After the accident, Paris was so grateful that she had taught her daughters what to do in such a situation. But accidents like that can happen to anyone. So if your kid hasn’t learned first aid skills yet, it’s time to do that now.