Although you can revel in the splendor of a vast diversity of wildlife there, you also have to watch your step for broken glass, garbage and lazy-fisherman's discarded fishing line.
And someone tied this rope to this tree who knows how long ago, yet no one ever cut the tree loose.
A grand day, under perfect blue skies.
This water is so shallow, you can walk all the way across it and not get your armpits wet.
A fresh brood of tree swallows serenaded us from a tree we were sitting under.
And this should have been the thing that set the tone for the day:
A prothonotary warbler! A life bird...and a picture of said life bird.
But.
Here is where the disclaimer comes in...those of you who read my blog on a regular basis know how I feel about house sparrows.
If you feel that "all life is sacred" and we shouldn't "play God" with wildlife, etc...please close this window now.
Otherwise, if you are ready to read a major rant, please continue:
Mom finally had nesting bluebirds this year. She usually sees a few way before this time of year, but she has never had a successful nest. A pair decided to
begin a nest in a nest box my Dad built years ago. His heart was in the right place, of course, but the design was lacking.
Today, when we arrived at Mom's, she told me that there were four eggs in the box. I walked down to check, and there were three.
Uh oh.
I was puzzled by tiny chips in the shells of the remaining eggs.
I asked Mom if she was finally ready to change the nest box to a better one that I had lent her last year and she agreed.
We placed a new, baffled pole in front of the old one, and transferred the nest. I then demolished the old box with a sledgehammer. Sorry, Dad. Had to be done.
We retreated to the house to watch the bluebirds, and they came back to the new nest and seemed to take it in stride.
As I watched, though, a small brown bird came flying into the bushes below the window, carrying a small blue thing.
Oh, damn, damn, damn.
A male house sparrow was removing the eggs.
I am sparing you the picture of the tiny embryo that was inside this egg.
Here's one of the remaining eggs...four white chips, with a bloody hole.
My Mom has agreed to start trapping.
Here comes the rant:
You have to choose between bluebirds and house sparrows. They can't live in harmony together. Why? Because HOSP were brought here by HUMANS, to a world that they had not evolved in, and the bluebirds have no defense against them. In their native land, some aggressive behavior has been noted, but nothing like how they act here.
I don't want to hear that killing HOSP is "playing God". Spare me.
We have been wiping our collective a**es with this planet for how long? And the HOSP problem is just a tiny speck in the huge dump truck of things we have done to upset the balance.
I don't want to hear that the "House Sparrows" didn't ask for this. Spare me.
The BLUEBIRDS didn't ask for it, either! Wiping out HOSP (even if that was remotely possible) would return the songbird balance back to a closer resemblance of what is supposed to be. What can be done is LOCAL, ACTIVE control of the HOSP population. That means trapping and killing them. If you are one of the "house sparrow huggers", you will not get any sympathy from me. If you want to spout "karma" at me, save your breath. If someone was ransacking your house and killing your children, what would you do? Would you say to yourself, "Oh, I will just sit back and let them, because I don't want to get any bad karma."? Hell no. You would blow them away.
I have heard some rehabbers say that they will treat starlings and house sparrows, because it's not up to them to choose. Oh really? Since when?
When are we, as a species, going to start thinking of more than just our own yards? We are the only species on the planet able to make a choice as to how we treat this precious Earth, and look what we have done. I could get all riled up about pesticides and the stupid choices that people make with their cars, houses, garbage....but that would be off the subject. But just let me say this: what you do in your yard affects your neighbor's yard. When we begin to think globally, our local environment will benefit.
Which would you rather have, anyway? A bird whose body chemistry, when in an introduced setting, is to procreate at any cost to the other birds who call the land their home? A bird who does not belong here? A bird who can't help themselves when it's time to nest and destroy any "competing" nests?
Or would you rather have a bird who bothers no one? Whose brilliant blue strums the strings of your heart?
These are the parents of those destroyed eggs. We owe it to them to make our yard, the yard THEY chose to nest in, a safe place.
If you are still reading, and disagree with what I have said and are planning a scathing rebuttal, be warned. You will get smacked down. Get over it.
My Mom and I have sweat, worried and hoped for this pair of bluebirds, only to have it all dashed before our eyes.
I needed some beauty after the carnage, and I saw a tall "weed" growing alongside Mom's new driveway. I asked her what it was, and she didn't know and wanted to rip it out. I stopped her when I saw that it had a big, beautiful flower.
Who knows what this is?
