Advice for the birds

 I think that this weekend we’ll reinstall the bird feeders. We’ve read the advice from the Raptor Center and also from the Cornell Ornithology Lab. As of the most recent data, our county has identified only domestic birds as being infected. We have no reason to suspect misinformation or disinformation from any of the organizations cited, but there are, we suspect, different priorities. The Raptor Center is focused on raptors. Cornell appears to place more emphasis on song birds. Raptors appear to be more susceptible, possibly from eating waterfowl?

We have no domestic poultry nor, to the best of our knowledge, do nearby neighbors. Although it appears to be a fairly limited risk, feeding birds on our deck is not without risk, but then life itself is not without risk, n'est-ce pas?

an occasional May visitor at the feeder

Photo by J. Harrington

We’ll probably ponder this question over the weekend and see if we can gain any additional insight or information. We’d be less inclined to think about this if the storms of this week hadn’t also brought about a notable rise in local trout streams we’re familiar with, thereby presenting us with additional risks to ourselves if we were to go wading. All told, we seem to have done a remarkably good job of screwing up both the climate and what used to be normal spring weather. The advice and guidance available about bird flu and feeders is less confusing than that from federal and state governmental entities regarding cautions to be followed to protect US from COVID. All in all, we seem to have created a number of systems that don’t function as well as they should and, what’s at least as bad, we seem as a society unable and unwilling to consider alternatives for fear it may give someone with whom we don’t fully agree and advantage. I don’t think this is a sustainable culture / society / political system, do you? I think what we have now is strictly “for the birds.” Aren’t we supposed to be a different taxonomic class (Mammalia vs. Aves)?

If you have a different perspective, please share it in the comments.

Constantly Risking Absurdity (#15)

By Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Constantly risking absurdity

                                             and death

            whenever he performs

                                        above the heads

                                                            of his audience

   the poet like an acrobat

                                 climbs on rime

                                          to a high wire of his own making

and balancing on eyebeams

                                     above a sea of faces

             paces his way

                               to the other side of day

    performing entrechats

                               and sleight-of-foot tricks

and other high theatrics

                               and all without mistaking

                     any thing

                               for what it may not be

       For he's the super realist

                                     who must perforce perceive

                   taut truth

                                 before the taking of each stance or step

in his supposed advance

                                  toward that still higher perch

where Beauty stands and waits

                                     with gravity

                                                to start her death-defying leap

      And he

             a little charleychaplin man

                                           who may or may not catch

               her fair eternal form

                                     spreadeagled in the empty air

                  of existence

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