Who:
Linda & Robert Scarth
longtime members
Where:
Cedar Rapids, IA
August 6 appeared quietly. No morning chorus in the garden. In the maple tree outside our bedroom window sat an immature Cooper's Hawk solemnly surveying the hope of breakfast. After it left, the resident Catbird gave the "all clear." Soon the Downy Woodpecker came in, her brood fledged and no longer bedraggled. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds staged their air wars around the trumpet vine, followed by the yellow joy of Goldfinches. The Barred Owl family was not visible, though we heard them in the night. Her alto and his tenor are the music. They fledged two who were allowed to play in our birdbath, stalk the hose and frog figurines by the garden pool, beg and be fed in the old maple tree by the window.
Not all encounters are so positive or contemplative. We must tackle removing a young woodchuck that camped in our garden this week. Perhaps he met one of the owls when there was hissing and growling in the dark and an owl feather near the birdbath the other morning.
Most of our conservation efforts are small, personal and contemplative: our native garden with its residents; displaying our photography to inspire belief in sustaining the beauty of nature; living lightly as we can. Later today we will go to our photo blind to observe the five young Ospreys at Wickiup Hill Nature Center reintroduction project by Linn County Conservation. We will also photograph butterflies on liatris while there.
As we reflect upon things with feathers (and wings), we know the hope of conservation is about fostering connections among people in the environment that we must protect, as well as contemplate. (With respect to Emily Dickinson -- "Hope is a thing with feathers.")
