In some places, the snow isn’t that deep.
A bird does not sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.
-Maya Angelou
–
The nor’easter blizzard blew through and left 16.6 inches of new snow in Marlborough. Woonsocket, RI, got over 55 inches. Because it was a blizzard, there are drifts that are much deeper and places with only around 6 inches of new snow. Schools were closed for two days and it took the plows that long to clean off just the major streets. The rail trail remained unplowed for three days, but was surprisingly easy to walk on where people packed the snow down in passing. At least for the first mile or so. After that it was passable, but too much work for me to attempt.
Four days have now passed and the trail is plowed — up to Fitchburg Street, that is. That’s right around 1 and 5/8 of a mile. At least we have that far we can go without completely bleeding off my old-man energy in a flurry of achy muscles and dripping sweat. The temperatures have harmed up as well, with highs well into the 30s. And the birds are out, even though it is still winter, making their sweet music.
To date, I have, with the help of the app on my phone, identified 14 different species. It’s amazing to me that there are so many different species out in our little patch of woods, and, even then, it’s only a small sampling of nonmigratory birds. All-in-all, there are between 10,800 to 11,200 species of birds in the world. That’s almost twice as many species as the number of mammalian species (6,500 to 6,759). That is on the path to change, however. Over 160 avian species have gone extinct since 1964 and it’s projected that over 500 species will become extinct by the end of the century. 3 billion birds have vanished, from North America alone, since 1970, mostly from man caused climate change and eradication of habitats. Birds are one of the 21st century’s canaries-in-the-coal-mine and what’s happening does not bode well for humanity.
As Waldo and I walk down the path, occasionally serenaded but our feathered friends, I can’t help but shudder at the consequences of the damage humans are doing to the environment. Birds are the last remnant of the dinosaurs. They made it through Earth’s last great extinction event (the fifth), the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction, in large part caused by the massive Chicxulub asteroid impact, some 66 million years ago. Some 75% of species did not make it through, but some dinosaurs did, namely the ancestors of all birds. And now, we’re on the edge of the next great extinction, the Holocene extinction, caused by human activity. I can only hope that some birds will make it through that too. They are such wonderful animals.
The ancestors of present-day mammals who survived the last great extinction, were thought to be small burrowing animals, like Purgatorius (what a great name!). They ate worms, insects and other surviving small animals. So I guess there were two main ways of surviving the catastrophe – burrow under the ground, or fly above it. It’s hard to guess what strategy will allow the survival of the current Holocene extinction, though I’m pretty sure some life will make it through. One thing is for sure. The planet Earth, and the life that survives on it, will not be the same as it is now. One can hope that there will evolve some greater intelligence than ours who knows better than to shit in their own living room. Or maybe intelligence isn’t what is required. After all, even Waldo knows better than to do that and he can’t even add.
For now, and, most likely, for the rest of my and Waldo’s lives, we can still enjoy life, pretty much as we’ve always known it, and at least some birds. Walking in the woods, especially in the spring, summer and fall, would not be nearly as beautiful and awe inspiring if there were no birds. Now, as far as I can tell, Waldo pretty much ignores the birds (believe it or not, he also ignores the squirrels that run across our path). I guess he’s decided that neither birds nor squirrels can be herded and therefore don’t require any attention. Even so, I’d bet he, too, enjoys the ambience birds create, at least subliminally.
Migratory birds will soon be making their way through here, so I’m likely to find many more species as the season progresses.
I know I’ll delight in listening to their varied and cheery songs.
While in other places… Somewhere off to the left is a large rock and next to it the 1.0-mile marker.