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During harsh and bleak times, we sometimes seek lightness and humor to help get us through. The "silver lining" so to speak -- something to temporarily lesson the pain of the whole.
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Yesterday morning when entering Central Park, it appeared like a beautiful, Currier and Ives post card. What can, after all, be more magical and peaceful than freshly fallen, virgin snow clinging to the trees surrounded by vision of white? Spectacular and immaculate might be the most descriptive words.
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But such is not the whole picture, is it?
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It will be some time before we know the full impacts of this abnormal and brutal winter upon much of the wildlife in the mid west, south and north east -- particularly water birds.
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Last year around this time, there was scant, but informative coverage in lesser known newspapers (unfortunately, none in NYC).
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The other night, there were two more dead ducks on the ice at the Reservoir.
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As pointed out in both news pieces above, water birds are capable of surviving extreme cold if they have adequate food supplies and fat reserves. But, both last winter and this one, there has been little reprieve from snow and frigid temperatures and thus, no temporary thaws of ice and snow.
With little to no open water or exposed ground on which to graze, fat reserves of water birds deplete and exhaustion and starvation ensue. Such is likely to occur in late winter, rather than early or mid point and is thus what we have seen in recent weeks.
With little to no open water or exposed ground on which to graze, fat reserves of water birds deplete and exhaustion and starvation ensue. Such is likely to occur in late winter, rather than early or mid point and is thus what we have seen in recent weeks.
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In trying to find lightness and humor to otherwise grim circumstances, I attempted the other day to describe "love sick" ducks and geese.
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But, of course, Bruce and Bozo are not so love sick as much as they are in pure survival mode. There is difference between love and desperation, as there is difference between love and gratitude. While there are certain elements of recognition and some of actual affection, what is mostly viewed, is fight for survival.
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It has been refreshing the last two nights to finally meet people who recognized immediately, what they are actually seeing without one having to explain.
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The other night while tossing food to the cluster of frantic birds around me, a woman taking pictures asked, "What are you feeding them?"
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"A mixture of black oiled sunflower seeds, dry cat food and whole wheat bread," I politely answered. "The birds are starving."
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"I see that," the woman replied. "But doesn't the Central Park Conservancy or the city feed them during these harsh times?"
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"Are you kidding?" I laughed. "The Conservancy hires a company called Geese Police to harass the geese throughout the entire year, including winter. If these geese attempt to go any other place in the park, they are immediately chased by dogs or frightened off with noise makers. The geese are viewed as nuisance. The city and Conservancy would as soon they all died here."
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"Oh my God, I didn't know anything about that." the woman said obviously upset. "That's terrible!" She then added. "You know, I read the New York Times everyday and I never saw anything about the impacts of this winter on wildlife or that the parks try to push the birds out."
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"I know. The media reports on the weather, but only its inconvenience to us. We hear about tourists who are upset when ferry rides are canceled due to ice floes on the rivers. But we don't hear about starving waterfowl on ice covered watercourses and snow covered parks."
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"I wish I had known about this. I would have brought some food with me, but it never occurred I would encounter something like this." the woman lamented. "I will bring some food for them tomorrow. Thanks for letting me know."
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A short time later, another woman passed and engaged me in similar conversation. I told her, "What you are seeing here is not normal behavior for ducks and geese. It's sheer desperation."
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"You don't have to tell me. I see," she replied in earnest.
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Like the first woman, this woman too regretted not having anything for the birds, but assured me she would bring some sustenance the next day. "It is so sad to see this kind of suffering. It's been such a brutal winter for them."
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Last night too, I encountered a young college student who aided me in dispersing the food I had brought to the birds, as well as a middle-aged man who offered the croissant in his backpack to the ducks. Of course, pastry may not be the most nutritious food for hungry wildlife, but at this point, any calories are better than none at all.
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It has been refreshing over the past couple of days to encounter people who get the dire nature of the situation immediately. One never knows when sharing information with others, how many actually assimilate and take proactive action at some point. But, I will be happy if sensing one or two people out of the many actually engaged with over these past few months take the conversations to heart and perhaps make some small changes in their perceptions and awareness.
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Perhaps that is one of the ultimate goals of living.
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The snow has finally stopped in New York City, but we wake up to another bitter day of 13 degree temperatures.
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The good news however, is that there are only a couple of more frigid days to get through before temperatures start to warm to what would be considered "normal" for this time of year.
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But, I fear the full impacts of this brutal winter (particularly on water birds) will not be known for quite some time. We don't for example, know the impacts upon migrating and nesting birds yet. (I personally believe that the two nesting geese who perished less than ten days after laying eggs at the Reservoir last spring died due to malnutrition experienced over the preceding winter. Other dangers include flooding of nests in marshy areas due to large snow and ice runoffs.)
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But, for the moment, the main concern is to just get through the next week and hope not to find any more dead birds at the Reservoir.
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And to try and take some delight and laughs at the antics of Bruce, Bozo and Willow as even through the darkest of nights, there is always light of the moon and the promise of a rising sun just a few hours away. -- PCA
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