Jane Kaufman reports in The Berkshire Eagle that there is a proposal in the Town of Washington to put up a 30-foot tower to better receive radio signals from birds. Berkshire County has a large dead zone where radio transmissions from migratory birds cannot be received. Scientists have placed tiny radio transmitters on the backs of some birds to study the large loss in the migratory bird population lately. A $1 million grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is paying for the installation of 50 receiving towers across New York and New England, with 10 in Massachusetts. The proposed tower in Washington would fit between existing towers in Hopkins Memorial Forest in Williamstown and the Jug End State Reservation in Egremont. Neighbors of the proposed site, though, are opposed to the project. That includes Kent Lew, who is on the town select board and who considers himself a birder. Lew said, “It's a beautiful road.... I get the intentions and the purposes and the bigger picture. But the net effect on an everyday level for those of us who live here is, it's just ugly.” Read more about this story in The Berkshire Eagle.