For most of my life I had no interest in birds at all. I started taking an academic interest when I first moved to the countryside, but it wasn’t until I moved here four and a half years ago that I developed a strong affection for them. Now I love ’em to bits.
Tonight there were two tiny wrens frantically searching for food around the window frames and on the mortar between the bricks. It was nearly dark, and I’ve never seen them hunt as late as that before. I assume they were getting desperate. The problem with wrens is that they won’t, or can’t, feed on the stuff I put out on the bird table. It seems they only eat insects, and that’s a problem in weather like this. The cold sends the insects hiding deep under cover, and the snow covers the ground anyway. Wrens are also more susceptible to cold weather than most garden birds – something to do with their size, apparently. Put these factors together and I suppose it explains why the mortality rate can be as high as 80% in a bad winter.
I know it’s silly to feel this way. It’s only nature after all, and nature has no compassion. That’s one of the reasons I incline towards Buddhist belief. And there’s nothing I can do about it anyway.
Yet still I can’t get that image of the two tiny birds out of my mind, nor wonder how my friendly robin is faring somewhere out in the frigid darkness. It hurts, believe it or not.
3 comments:
It is terrible for them and other animals, too. I've read about homeless people dying in Poland yesterday and of course, I always think about the children whose parents don't dress them warmly enough or can't.. It's hard to think about but important that we do.
The birds have their way of making it through winter. If they didn't, they wouldn't be around. I'm sure the wrens find something to eat, or else perhaps they'd have developed an instinct to migrate somewhere warmer over the winter.
And I'm the same way. I can't help myself.
I know, Della. I thought about homeless people often last night. I suppose we just tend to focus on those things that are closest and most visible.
That's the problem, Kaetlyn. Wrens don't migrate. I see them around all winter. It never ceases to amaze me the there are some left in the spring. It just really hit home last night to see those two tiny birds trying to find food so frantically, so late. The sight of them in the cold and near-darkness touched a nerve.
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