Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Living on the Edge

By Guest Blogger, Fran Palmeri
Nature Photographer

When I moved to Florida I thought it was kind of cute that yard birds were the live kind. Then I realized birds were in people’s yards because they had nowhere else to go. They’re forced to coexist with humans on chemically treated lawns, mulch, concrete and asphalt. Sandhill cranes take up residence on pesticided sod by an algaecide treated pond, wood storks hang out in a dumpster behind a restaurant, and ibises nest in a mountain of debris on a construction site. Dumps are another common habitat for birds and other creatures with no where else to feed.

Our fellow creatures often live life on the fringes of developed areas. Our ignorance, lack of concern, greed, and short sightedness has forced wildlife to make do with hideous substitutes for all that is natural, that is real, that is YES, to paraphrase Cummings.