The Collectors of Birds
My friend, Linda Petrulias, was invited on an exclusive tour by Field Guides of the Amazon. She has been on many of their trips in the past. What made this particular trip special was that she and the other travelers were invited by Field Guides because they were considered the cream of the crop birders. The trip was to be led by Bret Whitney, the owner of Field Guides. The only problem for Linda was that he would be collecting specimens because some of the birds were thought to be possibly a different species from two different areas and they needed the DNA. Linda reveres all life and she knew the process would be difficult for her to observe.
Back in 1902, Reginald Robbins wrote a small pamphlet that infuriated the indignant ornithological community by attacking the accepted practice of collecting. He accused them of practicing “murder and criminal curiosity.” The ornithologists thought it absurd and an “extreme position” but this small pamphlet opened the bitterness that would last for decades.
Americans’ true nature is to want to preserve nature. However, we’ve failed miserably in doing it by building one more highway, covering one more marsh in hopes of building industry that brings jobs. Audubon thought it appalling when the last great Auk was killed. He despised the commercial egg hunters in Labrador. However, it never disturbed him to shoot 100 birds a day in the name of science.
Separating an ornithologist from his gun at the time was as separating a modern scientist from his microscope. Besides, there was a thrill of the hunt. However, ornithologists liked to dignify and separate themselves from the hunter by distinguishing the word of “shooting” to having “taken” or “collected.” Perhaps, they felt it necessary to hide the fact, or possibly the shame of what they did.
George Henry MacKay actually recorded his shootings in a journal starting in 1861. In the introduction, he states ‘This book is intended to show the numbers and kinds of game shot by my friends and myself. The scores represent the numbers actually bagged, not shot down.” Reading through the journal today, the numbers shot were staggering. However, in the 1890s something happened. The entries began to skip from 1897 to 1904. After that there was a huge gap of 20 years. Suddenly, MacKay had begun to emerge as a watcher instead of a hunter. Entries in the Auk were found by MacKay regarding terns where he said, “To see them on their breeding grounds in such countless numbers, cannot fail to create in the mind of the ornithological student a profound and most lasting impression.” His many writings for ornithological publications after that proved him to be a skillful observer as well as a hunter.
In the late 1880s, rules and regulations regarding collecting were going into place. New York passed a law stating that anyone who wanted to shoot birds had to have a scientific reason and a license. William Brewster disputed in 1881 that “a bird’s life should count as nothing against the establishment of a new fact.” Twenty-five years later he argued for more regulations because it was becoming more difficult to find specimens.
The snobbish eastern bird watchers always distinguished themselves above the California birders. They only viewed two or three of the 90 western ornithologists as worthy of being in their ranks. But nothing caused more of a breach between the two geographical groups than collecting. California birders loved their wide-open space and liberal freedom opposing stringent rules on taking collecting birds. The stuffy easterners considered the Californians selfish. Eventually, Northern Californians and Southern Californians couldn’t even agree on permits regarding collecting.
The arguments continued for years with the collectors slowly losing ground and grudgingly giving in to the new laws and bird watchers’ opinions. Eventually, the use of field glasses began to become popular making it easier for the collector to put down his gun. Profoundly, the use of opera glasses, as underpowered magnification as they were, introduced women into bird watching.
Of course, even after the introduction of good field glasses, old-line bird watchers began to argue that they tempted fast judgments and left no proof at all. George Mackay turned into an ardent protectionist and advocated the field glasses. William Brewster mediated that “the glass was for diversion, the gun for study.”
And so the division of using the gun or field glasses continues today. When I asked my friend, Linda, how it went when she was on her trip and they were collecting, she responded that it was difficult for her and a few others. She said that most of the group could handle the skins afterwards, but for her, the life was gone, and with it the spirit of birding.”
In 1933, Frank M. Chapman, who had once been a collector himself, wrote off an era when he said, “Let not the field student of today, who never knew the gun, forget that his glass has won its standing on a foundation which could have been laid only with the aid of a gun.”
The Collectors of Eggs
Back in the 1880s, boys collecting eggs was as popular a sport as soccer and baseball are today to young boys and girls. It was so popular in fact that it supported a magazine geared to young boys called The Young Oologist. This magazine supported all sorts of information regarding the collecting of eggs, tree climbing, including ideas such as taking a hat to carry the eggs when you needed hands for climbing, and other interesting tidbits for young collectors. Young boys always ready for a treasure hunt usually took only common bird eggs. After finding their treasure, they would blow them out and hang them by a string. This popular pastime offered boys a chance to climb trees, and swap eggs like baseball cards. Most boys would eventually throw away their unlabeled eggs and dried nests as they entered manhood and discovered girls. The few that continued collecting began to follow in the footsteps of many other famous ornithologists. The serious young collectors pierced their eggs with drills, and labeled and dated their collected materials.
Oology, was considered a purposeful pursuit. Oologists went at birding in reverse from bird watchers. They found a nest with eggs and then attempted to solve the mystery of which bird put it there. They were concerned with the egg structure, shape, patterns, and weight. All of these factors are clues to the identity of the bird who made the nest and laid the eggs. These ornithologists became the detectives unlocking the secrets of the bird world. Always asking questions, they wandered into uncharted territory wondering why Northern nesting birds laid more eggs than Southern nesters of the same species; or why some ducks laid indiscriminate layers of eggs, or why some birds became collectors of mankind’s artifacts for their nests.
The urge to find answers through collecting has driven men to dangerous places and even to their deaths. William C. Crispin was discovered by three women picking wild flowers after they discovered a rope dangling dangerously over a cliff. Crispin had been attempting to collect peregrine falcon eggs. Francis J. Britwell, hung himself from a tree in the Sierras on his honeymoon in front of his bride. Richard P. Smithwick smothered to death after the bank collapsed while digging into it to collect kingfisher eggs.
The sport of collecting eggs was so often thought to be a boy’s game, that it often wasn’t taken seriously. Some adult egg collectors often gave egg collecting a low rating in the field of science by taking huge numbers of bird eggs. Serious ornithologists attempted to condemn this behavior in adults and even suggested that small boys be dealt with harshly.
The arguments began with some saying that taking the eggs from a bird’s nest was better than shooting them, since they would continue to lay eggs and sing their lovely songs. R. P. Sharples became enraged with the Audubon Society and its crusading ladies. “We are unreasonably persecuted. Taking eggs is permissible because many birds are too numerous and besides, there is too much female bossing,” he declared. “Women want to boss us at the polls, temperance advocates boss us when we are thirsty.” He ended his outrage by saying, “Now after fifty years of collecting eggs, I’m fed up with being bossed.”
Most bird watchers and egg and nest collectors generally were a fine group of dedicated people who were careful, perceptive, and patient. And in time by the 1920s, egg and nest collecting was soon frowned on by the ornithologists, and an unwritten law had curtailed much of it. Through the study of oology much good has come to ornithology and to the bird world. In the 1940s it was discovered that the shattering of the thin egg shells was caused by the wide use of pesticides. Many species, especially birds of prey may have become exterminated had it not been for the oologists. This discovery became the prefix to Rachel Carson’s The Silent Spring and stirred the early beginnings of the environmental movement.
About Newts and Dippers
Posted April 15, 2007 -------- I couldn’t stand it anymore. The early spring weather made me want to cut loose from responsibilities, roles, and reserves. It wasn’t difficult to persuade either Dennis or Tory, our poodle. With a picnic in the back seat, we headed down King’s Ridge Road, one of our favorite country jaunts, in pursuit of the American dipper.
For years a pair of American dipper nested on Austin Creek, until a few years back the pair disappeared to every birder’s disappointment. Last year the birds were back in a different location. Our friend and neighbor, Linda Petrulias had been up to check recently and found them at the same spot as last year.
This little gray bird with long legs and a stubby tail may spend its entire life in one watershed following streams. It may be plain but it’s not ordinary. One of its most important requirements is good water quality. It has vanished from some locations due to pollution. No other song bird occupies the special and unusual niche that the dipper inhabits. Living by racing streams they feed on the bottom of creeks, and raise their young above swirling whirlpools. The bird got the name dipper because of its peculiar habit of bending its legs in a dipping manner. Why they dip, nobody knows for sure. It may help them deal with a changing visual field caused by the constant water movement. Dipping may help to change the light angle so they can see into the water. Perhaps it is a way of communication rather than calling next to noisy running water. But dippers have been seen to dip when they are alone, so who knows?
We stopped at the high bridge and walked down to take a look mostly out of habit. This is where the pair of dippers had nested before. Looking down at the water, I saw what I thought were several dark fish. Dennis told me to look again and this time I lifted my binoculars to my eyes. I was astonished to see what looked like black salamanders and there were many of them. Suddenly, I looked again at a pair coming together. The male grabbed the female and held on with all four feet. The ballet began as they began to swirl around showing their black tops and then their red bellies. The visual of their mating dance - round and round, black and red and black again will forever be retained in my brain. And there were hundreds of them, all chasing each other or attached and swirling. Later, we identified them as red-bellied newts
Breeding migration begins as early as February with the males arriving before the females. Breeding takes place between February and May but peaks in March which is when we witnessed them mating. The females will lay 12 or so flat clusters of six to 16 eggs each on the underside of rocks in fast moving streams. In the summer the eggs will hatch to larvae and later transform in late summer or early fall. They are normally nocturnal but come out during the daylight to breed. The adults will spend the dry days of summer hidden in moist habitats under woody debris, rocks, and in animal burrows. When threatened by a predator, they will assume a swayback position of defense, exposing bright ventral surfaces to warn potential predators. They also have potent skin secretions that repel most predators away. These skin secretions contain toxins found in puffer fish liver, one of the deadliest of toxins. One newt eaten by a healthy adult could kill a person. They occur only in California near the coast from Bodega in redwood forests in Sonoma County to near Honeydew in Humboldt County and inland to Lower Lake and Kelsey Creek in Lake County.
Thrilled to have witnessed the breeding of the red-bellied newts, we drove onward to the supposed nesting sight of the dipper. We parked next to the low bridge where a small creek was running towards Austin Creek. Dippers usually build their nests on the banks near water and where the spray from water will keep their green structures green and moist. I climbed down to the creek and peered under the bridge. I soon spotted the huge globular structure about a foot wide sitting on the bridge base. The nest was made of moss, interwoven grasses and sticks. What I didn’t know then was that the entrance was on the side. There was no activity. Then suddenly, I saw a movement on the other side of the bridge. A dipper was poised on a rock dipping up and down. We both backed off from the nest so as not to disturb the parent. Climbing back up to the road, we again looked down. The dipper suddenly plunged down into the water, spinning around, and disappeared for a second, reappearing with a huge grub in its mouth. We watched it continue to feed for several minutes.
We hope to get lucky again as we were to see the mating of the newts when we return in late April to hopefully watch the fledging of the youngsters. The babies will have to drop from their nest about ten feet down, usually tumbling head over heels in the current of fast moving water, bobbing upwards and eventually slowly swim to the side where the parent will be waiting. My greatest concern is will there be enough water to take them downstream this dry year? If not, they may drop to their deaths.
Oh sweet spring, so filled with promise of life and the eternal life cycle.
An Umbrella Bird and Flight through the Canopy
Posted Sunday March 11, 2007 --------- Following a smoking vehicle we crept through San Jose’s narrow streets. Pedestrians were everywhere often moving from the crowded sidewalks to the bulging streets filled with stopped traffic. After having spent over a week in modern Panama City, San Jose’s sprawl in Costa Rica appeared like a third world country.
We were on our way to Braulio Carillo National Park. It’s hard to imagine a rain forest that is impenetrable just 13 miles away from San Jose’s noise and congestion. It became a National Park in 1978 and protects over 112,000 acres of volcanic land covered with thick forests and swift rivers with deep canyons. The park includes two extinct volcanoes, beautiful waterfalls and a stunning cloud forest on the slopes of high rugged mountains. There are a few short trails in the park, but even with the close proximity to San Jose, most of the park remains unexplored.
We visited Braulio Carillo several years ago, but this time we were passing through the national park to visit the Rain Forest Aerial Tramway that is owned by a large company who purchased the natural forest situated next to the national park. We passed over the Rio Sucio orange color stream called “Dirty River.” The orange color comes from sulfur deposits found on Irazu Volcano.
We paid and obtained our tramway tickets and waited for the next bus to take us to the tramway. After the bus ride, we were greeted by a guide who introduced himself as Hurben Gomez. I mentioned that we were bird watchers and he became very excited and asked if he could be our guide for the day. We had discovered another budding bird watcher.
Hurban took us birding on a trail that soon produced russet ant shrikes, white-ruffed manakin and black-faced grosbeaks. We also got incredible good looks at a male black-throated trogan, with a green head, and yellow body and yellow bill. We continued to bird the deep forest picking up the spotted and the wedge-billed woodcreepers.
Suddenly, I focused on a large black bird sitting on a tree branch. The reason it stood out in the dark forest was because of its size and it had a partial red breast and a spectacular umbrella crest. Hurban saw it about the same time, said with urgency, “You must see this bird.” and started pointing. I focused my binoculars and was amazed to see what Hurban called the bare-throated umbrella bird. The bird soon flew down and disappeared at the same time a second bird, the female swooped down following her mate. This was an incredibly good sighting as it is one of the target birds for Brauilo Carillo. Apparently, there was a party of bird watchers who had been there a short time before us and they had spent several days searching just for that bird with no luck. It wasn’t until much later that I realized how lucky we were to see this pair when I read that the birds are usually seen separately until March when the males would come together on breeding grounds called leks. They seek attract mates by showing off their orange-red bare throat that forms an inflatable sac and becomes scarlet when inflated. We were lucky to see a pair already bonded and the male displaying in late January.
After that discovery, we came out of the dense forest to the tramway where Hurban hurried us past many people standing in line for the aerial tramway. He moved us up front, and instead of being pushed into a tramway cart filled with six people, we were soon seated in our own separate cart with just the three of us. I know everybody in line was wondering who we were to get such preferential treatment.
The tramway left the ground and soon we were floating silently through the forest passing the forest floor. As we rose to the higher canopy, Hurban pointed out a keel-billed toucan that we watched eye to eye. Having birded the floor of rain forests for many years, it was a delight to be sailing over the canopy looking down. We passed by a lovely pink flower that I had never seen before. Hurban called it the pink marshmallow that it did resemble. There were many large bromeliads growing in the canopy and Hurban told us that the famous red and black poison dart frog would lay their eggs in ponds on the forest floor. After the eggs hatched into tadpoles, the frogs would come back and collect each tadpole one at a time in their mouth and take them up to the canopy depositing them into the bromeliads to insure their safety from predators below. The tramway ride lasted over an hour and covered over two miles. As we made the turn around, Hurban pointed out the tallest mahogany trees and told us that they were endangered now from heavy logging. Suddenly, he pointed out a small toucan like bird sitting just a few feet away from our tramway cart. The yellow-eared toucanet had an all black throat, breast and belly with yellow ear tufts and a bicolored bill of black and yellow. It was a new life bird for us.
Hurban birded the road back with us getting permission to not take the bus. We picked up chestnut-mandibled toucans, several Montezuma oropendolas, cinnamon becard, green honeycreepers and olive-backed euphonias. We rewarded Hurban with a large tip and said our farewells after taking down his e-mail address so we can find him when we come back to Costa Rica.
The next day, we hiked our way up to the top of Volcan Poas huffing and puffing all the way at the 8,200-foot altitude. The park is the most visited in Costa Rica because of its close proximity to San Jose. This may explain why we only saw one bird on the hike up and down the slopes from and to the Visitor’s Center. I was later surprised to read that there are 79 bird species that have been seen there including the resplendent quetzals. It was a spectacular day and the only day in two weeks that gave incredible views of the crater with large clouds threatening to hide the crater but staying away long enough for us to enjoy the view.
Paradise in Panama
Posted Feb. 6, 2007 --------- Thirty years ago, I was on a 24 hour layover in Panama City where I took the train from Panama City to Colon paralleling the Panama Canal. I have fleeting memories of that train ride of being mostly frustrated because I never really saw the Canal. I remember Panama City mostly as an ethnic melting pot. I saw many exotic and beautiful faces. I remember lots of poverty and the highest buildings were maybe five stories. I was not prepared for what I saw when I returned thirty years later.
My husband and I were met at the airport in the early evening and swiftly taken off in a van to the business section of Panama City. Modern and expansive, filled with many high-rise buildings, the bright lights showed us a city filled with casinos, restaurants, expensive shops, and splendid hotels. Our driver said none of these buildings were here thirty years ago. Growth is everywhere as more construction are going up. Mostly new cars were to be seen contrasting with the older public buses that were lavishly painted with thematic art; some gloriously complicated. Panama City’s economy is thriving.
Panama is the crossroads of the world; where east meets west and north meets south. Americans are comfortable here. They have a safe drinkable water system and the U.S. currency is accepted with a dollar for dollar ratio. As baby boomers are retiring, the real estate market in Panama City is thriving as never before. Twenty-eight thousand U.S. citizens have made Panama their home already; and many more are coming. Money is flowing into Panama and it shows.
Our first day in Panama City, we strolled the streets observing everything from street vendors selling thousands of cell phones to Italian men’s clothing and women’s boutique stores. We visited a five story shopping mall that sparkled with fountains and glass escalators reflecting palm trees and gardens. We hired a cab driver to take us to where we could photograph the Panama Canal. Upon our return back to our first class hotel, we drove through the poorer ghetto area of shabby apartments where bright clothes hung out to dry on balconies contrasted with the faded and falling down buildings. We were told that this is where most of the immigrants and illegals from Colombia live, but pathetic as it seemed, there are few homeless people in Panama.
Up early for a 6 am breakfast, we were picked up quickly by Mario, our guide. We headed to Clayton, an old U.S. Base near the Canal. We stopped in an open field where we saw variable, thick-billed, and ruddy-breasted seedeaters which we had seen before. The new life seedeater for us was the least seedeater. But the best bird of the morning for us was seeing two blue-headed parrots flying overhead, a new parrot for us. We then stopped in a garden area and watched orange-chinned parakeets in perfect light. Three keel-billed toucans jostled there way into the top of a cecropia tree.
Stopping at a small lake on the base, we saw two egrets. One was a great egret but I couldn’t quite believe my eyes when I looked at the other one. This white bird had a blue bill, a black cap with long white delicate plumes that danced in the wind. Mario looked at the bird and exclaimed that we had just discovered the elusive and rare capped heron which is only found in the canal range of Panama. It had been five years since he had seen this solitary and wary bird.
After a stop for lunch, we visited the Miraflores Locks. There were many photos showing the building of the Panama Canal. At first, I watched the devastation to one of the richest ecosystems on the planet. Indeed, it was but as I stood at the top of the building gazing down at two enormous cargo ships entering the Miraflores Lake, I was struck with awe as I watched them inch their way to the locks to be lowered two more times. The marvel of the engineering matches the pyramids in Egypt and the carved rounded boulders that form the lost city of Machu Picchu in Peru. The collage of ethnic mixed backgrounds of backbreaking workers fighting malaria and disease to bring a crossroads to the world is truly a phenomenal spectacle of what our humanity and spirit can do. Our tenacious and enduring spirits that can send man to the moon and build such colossal engineering feats as the Panama Canal must find its way back to nature. I have no doubt that we as humans can soar again to meet the future, if our political system doesn’t dither the last few years left to help us create our new brave frontier.
The Parque Nacional Metropolitano is the only protected rain forest within the capitol city limits in Latin America. Two hundred and sixty bird species live in the 600 hectares next to the high rise buildings of Panama City. We immediately got great looks at a white-tailed trogan which was a new life trogan for us. We watched many hummingbirds and North American warblers in an open space. A further walk through the park revealed a blue-crowned motmot sitting in a deep shadow of the forest. Later on the road, we stopped to see a sleeping three-toed sloth high up a hill in a tree.
We birded the old Panama mud flats for shorebirds producing marbled godwits, dowitchers, western sandpipers, black-bellied and semi-palmated plovers, and greater and lesser yellowlegs. The best bird for us was the Southern lapwing.
That afternoon we drove to the Kuna Yala foothills on the Caribbean side of Panama. The road was a primitive road leading to a mixed hardwood forest where many Kuna Indians have moved from their original San Blas Island to settle on the Caribbean slopes.
Burbayar Lodge is a small eco-lodge built like the Kuna Indians thatched homes on top of a mountain. There are only four cabins built with no electricity and no hot water. Burbayar is derived from the Kuna dialect and means “spirit of the mountain.” Primitive as the cabins were, the lodging was very comfortable. Sadly, it rained most of the two days we were there making for treacherous mud hiking up and down hills.
The birds were slow but did appear producing bay wren, russet ant-shrike, spot-crowned ant wren, rufous-winged, and golden-headed tanagers, and our best bird, a large rufous bird crawling upwards on the bark of a tree, the rufous-winged woodcreeper. The hike up and down the muddy mountain slopes in rubber boots was so arduous I was glad I had taken a walking stick.
After lunch, we took a short walk up the road from the lodge and watched blue-headed and mealy-amazon parrots fly overhead. We found a tree with gleaming lapis blue dachnis overhead mixed with green and shining honeycreepers. We got great looks at a pied puffbird, a new one for us.
We departed for Albrook Airport in Panama City to board our flight to David, capital of Chiriqui Province. Chiriqui is known as “Panama’s breadbasket” because of its highly productive volcanic soil that produces much of Panama’s great food. Chiriqui also has some of the most breathtaking highland scenery in Central America. Mario told us that Chiriqui has its own flag and would like to have its own money and become independent from Panama as it has all the natural resources that it needs.
We were met by a new driver and transferred to the western side of the Baru Volcano to the town of Volcan where we were to stay two nights at the Hotel Dos Rios.
La Amistad International Park and World Biosphere Reserve is shared with neighboring Costa Rica and recognized in 1982 as a Biosphere Reserve and UNESCO World Heritage Site. La Amistad is located at a point on the Central American land bridge where flora and fauna from North and South America reach their maximum species mix, with great ranges in altitude, precipitation, soils and temperatures. The temperature was cool and windy; a green land of many low clouds and rainbows.
We drove to Baru Volcano National Park located in the Talamanca mountain range. Baru is the highest point of the country at close to 10,500 feet above sea level. Unfortunately, the rain continued soaking us with its damp coolness. We had hoped to search for many high altitude species such as the resplendent quetzal, and several other highland species.
We decided to bird the road into the Los Quetzal Trail next to the Chiriqui River. From the van we were able to see good looks of many birds including a tiny hawk which was another life bird for us. A large family of yellow-bellied siskins were feeding on a field of yellow flowers. We also picked up an olivaceous wren, flame-collared tanagers, yellow-throated brush finch, slaty flower piercer, and finally the volcano hummingbird.
There are seven Indian cultures in Panama still living simple life styles that have changed little since Columbia discovered America. I bought a basket from an Emberra Indian man clothed only in a red loin cloth. I bought two molas from a Kuna woman who was working at Burbabor Lodge that she had made herself.
The United States history with Panama has been intertwined for many years making Panama an easy destination for Americans. Panama offers islands and sparkling beaches for sun worshipers. If it's the night life one is seeking, Panama has fine dining, glitzy casinos, discos, and nightclubs to stalk.
For the sports people, there is rafting, kayaking, diving, sailing, surfing, and sport fishing .
And for nature lover’s Panama’s diversity, volcanic mountains, highlands, and rain forests offer 954 species of birds and more than 1500 species of orchids with easy access to them from Panama City. We saw 222 bird species and 42 were life birds.
Birds and Global Warming
Posted Jan 6, 2007 -------- We know how canaries helped tell miners when it was time to leave the mines because of carbon dioxide poisoning. Once again, the birds may be the first to tell us how fast global warming is taking over our planet. Tree swallows, one of our first spring migrants to arrive, have been taking advantage of the warmer temperatures arriving earlier to nest. They are now nesting up to nine days earlier than 30 years ago. Usually, nesting ensures more eggs, but what is unknown is how the insects will respond to climate shifts. Will there be a day when the tree swallows arrive to find no insects available to feed their young? When a species changes patterns in their drive to survive, a new rhythm can take over and throw everything out of synch with nature. The more specific or limited a diet is for a bird, the more precarious a future it may have to survive a warming planet.
There is little doubt that our planet is in great peril. Species are declining at an ever increasing rate. A total of 1,111 of the world’s bird species are considered to be at risk with 200 possibly disappearing in the next 20 years. Imagine California losing the California quail? Our state is slotted as one of seven states who possibly face losing their state birds. Their climate ranges may shift or shrink entirely out of their official states.
The popular American goldfinch is widely seen throughout most of the United States. As many as 33 states may see fewer American goldfinches summering over. Even non-birders would begin to notice if some of their more common birds were missing when taking a hike. If a bird’s range shifts just a few short miles, it may still have a disturbing effect for other wildlife sharing its ecosystem.
Many songbirds are already arriving at their nesting sights earlier, often finding the insects, flowers, and berries they needed not available when they arrive. These songbirds help manage the natural balance by the insects they eat, pollinating plants, and dispersing seeds causing the ecosystem to become off balance if they arrive early to find their survival in jeopardy.
From the Rocky Mountains alpine meadows, to the coastal wetlands and estuaries, these important habitats could disappear with global rising sea levels. Sea-level rising in the Gulf Coast and mid-Atlantic regions could destroy migratory shorebirds habitat and lead to flooding, erosion, and property damage. Some native tree species could be replaced by other species, such as the maple forests of the northeastern United States being replaced by oaks and conifers which are more tolerant of higher temperatures.
One study of 35 species of eastern warblers found that seven species have shifted farther north by 65 miles over the past 24 years. None of the species studied had shifted further south of its range.
Rocky Mountain scientists in Colorado have discovered that the American robins migrating to the region are arriving two weeks ahead their schedule 23 years ago. The problem is that when they arrive to their higher altitude summer breeding places, they arrive to find winter conditions still prevail and must wait for the snows to melt before they can feed.
In other cases, birds such as the pied flycatcher whose winter home is in Africa where the climate has not changed significantly, are migrating at their normal times to their breeding grounds in Europe where the average spring temperature has risen 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit since 1980. In many case they arrive too late for optimal food availability forcing them to find mates, and lay eggs quickly and without the bulk of insects they need available. They are raising fewer young.
Many birds can adapt quickly to changing climate. However, the plants they depend on may take centuries to move. Trees and other slow-maturing plants have proven difficult in their response to climate change which can disturb wildlife communities. Add the fragmentation of our landscape due to roads, farms, and development and forest species makes it much harder for them to survive.
California has seen a dramatic decline in the population of sooty shearwaters. These shearwaters journey all the way from New Zealand to winter feeding sites in Japan, Alaska and California. Warming oceans have led to a fall in the amount of food for the birds. These same declines were seen at their breeding colonies. Sooty shearwaters will be forced to find new locations for food and we will be seeing fewer birds returning.
Common murres off the California coast have recently found phenomenal success in the past six years finding abundant food supplies that have encouraged successful reproductive rates. At a colony on Southeast Farallon, they have increased their population in six years from 55,000 to 200,000 birds. However, recently there seems to be less food available to feed their young. Smaller fish needed to feed their offspring doesn’t seem to be as available. The adults fly farther out to see in search of schooling salmon, anchovies, smelt and sardines. Some succeed while others fail.
If love of birds isn’t enough to capture the interest of politicians and corporate interests, then the economical role they can play should be brought to their attention if global warming isn’t addressed. If Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico lost the Savannah sparrow, and sage thrashers, they could face huge outbreaks of rangeland grasshoppers. The loss of many species of warblers in parts of Great Lakes and the Rocky Mountains regions could allow populations of spruce budworms, mountain pine beetles, and many other pests to takeover which could be critical to healthy forests causing commercial damage and forest fires.
The long-distance migrating Rufous hummingbird is the primary pollinator for the wild blueberry in southeastern Alaska. A huge ecosystem of wildlife depend on the blueberry for food. This tiny hummingbird is critical in providing food to the entire ecosystem.
Bird watchers spend billions of dollars every year on bird related recreation in the United States. They spend an average of $100 million in each state which in turn supports 200,000 jobs and generates more than one billion dollars in state and federal tax revenues. They travel to many states to birding festivals. If the birds disappear, so does the money.
Perhaps the birds are nature’s messengers showing us that our planet is in peril and that our environment is changing. We still have time to accept the challenge to make the simple changes to slow global warming. If we don’t make the changes, many species will disappear with the birds. Birds connect us to nature, to flight, and to song. Without their color, the world would be bleak and dull. Without their flight, our fantasies would be limited. And without their song, the silence would be unbearable.
Birds and Spirituality
Posted Dec. 4, 2006 ------- The documentary movie, Winged Migration, begins when the following words appear on the screen, “For eighty million years, birds have ruled the skies, seas, and earth. Each spring, they fly vast distances. Each Fall, they fly the same route back.” The movie shows the birds’ odysseys as they journey through incredible dangers, both natural and man-made. Human beings are shown as both allies and enemies. As I watched the film, I felt as though I had become one with these extraordinary brave little beings. I felt a spiritual connection to them as they confronted their own survival or mortality.
Throughout human history, birds have been a source of inspiration. They have a powerful place in our cultures, as symbols of freedom and wisdom and spirituality. Nature holds the answer to all of life’s mysteries and birds have always provided universal principals and spiritual guidance for all religions.
Among the Pueblo peoples, ceremonies have always been the center of their cultural lives. Birds have always been considered spiritual messengers and have been deeply integrated into their traditions. There are more than 200 species of bird names in their Native languages. More than 100 birds are essential to the Pueblo culture. The migrations of birds marked the change of seasons. Many Native Americans believed that birds had valuable spiritual properties needed by members of these Pueblos. Both Hopi and Zuni believed that bluebirds were associated with puberty rituals surrounding the passage from girlhood to womanhood. The Zuni used prayer sticks as offerings to the spirit world. Depending on its purpose, prayer sticks required a combination of feathers drawn from among 72 different species of birds. Prayer sticks served the same purpose as rosary beads serve the Catholic religion.
A certain calm is required to watch birds. Without it, it’s as if a restless or agitated being warns the birds away. Patience and quiet is the first order to bird watching and soon becomes meditative. A birder knows when he goes out to seek birds that he is in search of slowing down. Before the humbling experience of actually seeing the bird being pursued, the usual rhythm of walking becomes one of stalking.
Lama Surya Das, a leading spokesperson for the merging of American Buddhism and contemporary spirituality, says, “People tell me bird-watching is one of the best meditations; they get very still and quiet and wait for any movement; it’s like watching the mind.” A Buddhist friend of mine once said that Buddhism and spiritual encounter can be a walk down a path bird watching.
Birds have always had a prominent place in symbology. The ancient Persians symbolized the human mind-soul as a bird, Karshipta. The ancient Pantheons regarded birds as celestial messengers. The fact that birds lay eggs providing life brought forth the idea of the cosmic egg. In the Finnish Kaevala, a bird lays six golden eggs and one iron egg; the iron one becoming our earth. The cosmic egg is mentioned in Greek mythology and in Hindus tan. All ancient religions refer to birds as sacred, for example: the phoenix, the Egyptian ibis, golden hawk, and the white swan of eternity.
The Bribri indigenous group that reside near Puerto Viejo in Costa Rica believe that there is spiritual significance in the migration and view the birds as spiritual birds that traversed the world. Early in the mornings, the Bribri elders chant songs dedicated to the birds asking them to deliver the seeds they need to feed their families.
In the Bible, Jesus pointed to birds, and declared, “Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.” Linking birds to the idea of God’s love for each individual, Jesus said, “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one shall not fall to the ground without your Father.” Jesus even compared his mother’s adoration when he said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not.” Birds, feathers, and wings are quoted and used as similes in the Bible over and over again and used to convey safety, spiritual love, and protection.
Poet Coleman Barks wrote, “Birds represent our longings for purity and freedom and they carry messages of ineffable joy.” Perhaps, through are adoration of birds we our communing with God sensing his fellowship and enjoying his creation. Following adoration, comes stewardship for the planet as I have never met a bird watcher than hasn’t ultimately become a protector of our Earth.
“Spirituality is like a bird: If you hold it too closely, it chokes, and if you hold it too loosely, it escapes.”
Israel Santr Lipkin
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