Not knowing when the dawn will come
I open every door
Or has it feathers like a bird,
Or billows like a shore?
Emily Dickinson
Spring Poem
Category Archives: Birds
Falling Birds
Have you noticed? Birds such as eagles, great horned owls, pelicans and peregrine falcons are falling, dead, to the ground. David Quammen’s piece, “Why Are Birds Falling From the Sky” recently appeared in the “New York Times” and alerted me to what is happening to some of our precious wildlife. The H5N1 virus is killing our birds at a devastating pace and apparently, this virus is worse than the pesticide DDT (which was banned years ago). Sadly, we cannot ban viruses. But we can reconsider what we eat and what happens in commercial poultry farms with chickens crammed together in unhealthy spaces. If I think of any bird suffering paralysis, brain inflammation, and bleeding; it is yet another reminder to watch what I eat and choose a vegetable option.
We Can Do Better
As many of you know, I love the beach. There is something very restorative about feeling my feet in the sand, hearing the sound of the waves roll back and forth, and swimming in the ocean. Yet I was sadly confronted with a painful reality. I saw a beautiful seagull desperately trying to dislodge a fish hook that it had swallowed. All I could see was a fishing line and what appeared to be blood on the bird’s beak. While I reported the injured bird to the lifeguard and he said he would call it in, my thought was that the bird would die or starve before too long. Please, if you fish, have the decency to recycle your fishing lines properly, and don’t throw them back in the water. Or better yet, don’t fish. We can do better than this, folks. Birds don’t deserve to suffer at our hands.
Shapeshifting
A warming climate is causing animals to ‘shapeshift’. Climate change is a human problem and an animal one. Animals have to adapt to it too. Some warm-blooded animals are changing in shape and getting larger ears, beaks, and legs to better regulate their body temperatures as the planet gets hotter. Bird researcher Sara Ryding of Deakin University in Australia describes these changes in a review published on September 7th in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution. Strong shapeshifting has particularly been reported in birds such as the North American dark-eyed junco and Australian parrot. “Shapeshifting does not mean that animals are coping with climate change and that all is ‘fine,’ says Ryding. “It just means they are evolving to survive it — but we’re not sure what the other ecological consequences of these changes are, or indeed that all species are capable of changing and surviving.” I wonder what will happen to this great blue heron.
Some Inspiration on this April Day
THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS
When despair for the world grows in me
And I wake in the night at the least sound
In fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presences of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
–Wendell Berry
Baby Bird Rescue
I had the fortune of meeting Einstein, a baby bird last week. She or he, we don’t know which yet, fell about eight stories out of its nest and landed on the ground. Luckily, my colleague found the bird and rescued it. It is no bigger than my index finger and is living on a mix of egg and some high protein cat food. Einstein is so tiny that it has to be fed small pieces of food held with tweezers. Remember, the parents would normally drop food into the hungry bird’s mouth. If you look at the photo you can see the outline of its yellow mouth. Right now it looks like Einstein is a catbird but time will tell if that is the case.
I just received some great news, Einstein is a bluebird. Here is a photo below of what he or she is starting to look like.
Leadership
Over the weekend I was quietly sitting on the beach and had the good fortune to see a parade of geese walk in front of me. It was amazing. I had never before seen anything like it in my life. I always thought geese stayed near ponds and did not hang out by the ocean. As you can see from the video, there they were, magically walking across the sand. As I watched them I figured out they were on their way towards a marsh-like area of the park. I felt so grateful they were not scared of me, or any other beach goers for that matter, and there was a place for them to go to in the evening.
That experience at the beach was a stark contrast to the one I had at an outdoor art festival where I saw a very sad and disturbing sight. Just so you get a feel for the situation, the temperature was 94 degrees and it was burning hot. A popular weather site said it felt like 108 degrees. As I was wiping sweat from my forehead, I turned my eye and saw a woman walking her very small dog on the black pavement. The dog was whimpering, panting, had her tongue hanging out, and was pulling on her leash. As the dog owner walked past me the dog tried to get closer to where I stood on a small patch of green grass. Obviously, the dog needed water and probably had burned the pads on her paws. I tried to speak with the woman but she said the dog was fine and did not need anything. Everyone standing within a few yards of me was concerned for the dog.
It is so important for us to show concern for others and to appreciate the gifts nature bestows upon us. Animals are so very precious and we need to respect and care for them. How many times in our lives do we stop caring for others? How often are animals harmed? How many times do we see someone throw trash out of the car window or waste precious resources? We can all stand up and be leaders. We can make the world a better place.