PRESS RELEASE: EYES ON NATURE MAY 2021

In our greenspaces and in our backyards, each day in May brings new additions to our community. Yesterday a Wilson’s Warbler, with his cap of black and his staccato song, joined the chorus of finches and towhees. Today a Black-headed Grosbeak lands on the top of a Douglas Fir, 2500 miles from its winter home in the pine forests of Nayarit, Mexico.

These and other newcomers join a spectacle in full swing. The College backdrop is one of mixed conifer-deciduous forest, but the drama of spring plays in many venues. Above the campus trails, the canopy closes as ashes and maples reach full splendor. Their broad leaves hide a tiny Ruby-Crowned Kinglet on her nest, protected from predators by height and camouflage. In the brambles below, a Song Sparrow disappears into a thorn-guarded home. Lower still, the Dark-eyed Juncos nest, deep in the grass on the forest edge—just as invisible to casual passersby as any bird in the canopy. All around us the anticipation builds and we are far from the final act! Each day new flowers burst into color and eggs transform into begging birds. Mothers (and fathers) fly forays back and forth, using every minute of the lengthening days to feed their future.

As this new life grows, we can look to the sky for what tomorrow’s wind brings*, perhaps a warbler from the jungles of Nicaragua or a swallow from the mangrove forests of Costa Rica. We can rejoice in the heartening message of each new arrival. These international travelers, who recognize no government’s boundary, but who are affected none-the-less by our human laws and practices, speak of the global community to which we all belong, of the shared planet we call home.

And we can pull a hopeful message from their presence. It tells us that their winter grounds still provide ample food and that our long spring days still bring an abundance of resources to sustain them here again. May we all rejoice in this message of hope and find the energy to carry it into our intertwined and shared future. May we use their arrival to commit (or commit anew) to doing what we must, collectively and individually, to ensure that they can continue to safely travel back and forth across our borders to bring color to our world.

*for a high-tech exploration of migration in real-time with daily forecasts for your area, check out BirdCast – https://birdcast.info

From email from Walter Shriner, Science Faculty MHCC