“When a hurricane or tropical storm is headed your way, it’s natural to worry about how your home, garden, and the wildlife around you will fare. Birds, in particular, face some pretty big challenges when severe weather rolls through. But these feathered friends are smart—and have a few tricks up their wings to help them…

I sold my first poem when I was eight—sort of. At a school fair in my hometown of Pownal, Maine, I set up a small table to sell animal figurines, each paired with a poem. Poetry was so central to my life then that I could not conceive of making something—in this case, little sculptures…