Each Bird Is an Answer

BirdNote^®

Each Bird Is an Answer

Written by Todd Peterson

This is BirdNote!
[Ocean waves and calls of a flock of Dunlin on the wing]
I’ve been thinking about birds.
Honed by ceaseless demands, every living bird is an answer, a marvelous adaptation. Each heeds challenges and opportunities to which it must respond if it is to survive. Each expresses a unique place in nature.
Through the millennia, and every year, nature winnows birds. The dangers of their passage over the earth refine them continually. Their quick, bright eyes, streamlined shapes, brilliant and subtle plumage, darting or soaring flight … all express their ability to respond to a particular combination of what nature poses and provides.
In darkness, slight, quick creatures, they filter into our forests after monumental journeys guided by senses we have lost or never possessed. In the dim light of spring dusk and dawn, they grace us with the benediction of their song.
[Song of the Swainson’s Thrush + ambient with “quips!”]
Their capacity to read the world, to find food and each other, are sure signs of birds’ ability to meet the demands for which evolution and time have prepared them. But they are not adapted to the man-made disaster of oil spills.
I invite you to work with us to shape a future that is more in harmony with the needs of birds and wildlife. Come to our website, where you will find practical suggestions and avenues to learn more. We’re birdnote.org.
I’m Mary McCann.
[Ocean waves and the calls of a flock of Dunlin on the wing]
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Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York.  Large flock of Dunlin recorded by W.W.H. Gunn; song of the Swainson’s Thrush and “Quip” call by G.A. Keller. 
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson
© 2010 Tune In to Nature.org         July 2010

ID# evolution-01-2010-07-06-MM