Date: Tue, 9 Dec 2003 11:11:35 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Walter Ellison Subject: Re: SI hummers MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi All, This is going to be a bit long and philosophical, but I hope this commentary is of interest to some. Although I am all for "letting nature take its course" I also rebel against unsentimentality in the name of being realistic. It is a denial of our humanity to ignore the pathos of doomed living things. Although these are "just birds" they are experiencing a small tragedy of sorts by winding up in the wrong place and time. I experienced a twinge of sadness over Thanksgiving watching a lively and handsome, but certainly doomed, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher on Cape Cod - now likely dealing without success with two feet of snow and the deep freeze after the weekend nor'easter up there. I believe we have not been granted the right nor the responsiblity to right nature's "wrongs", for me it is inappropriate to employ heroic measures for vagrant birds. Still I can't help wondering if we're not seeing new migration patterns evolve, perhaps due to indirect human intervention, especially our effect on global climate over the last century. The vagrants may partly be our "fault". However, it is not up to us to change a few statistically insignificant events just because we can empathize with the individual "tragedies" of wayward birds. In the end we can only watch events unfold, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't feel some grief over nature's "mistakes". Enjoy the birds that it is your fortune to find, Walter Ellison 23460 Clarissa Road Chestertown, MD 21620 phone: 410-778-9568 e-mail: rossgull@crosslink.net "A person who is looking for something doesn't travel very fast" - E. B. White (in "Stuart Little") ----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Huy" To: Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2003 10:24 AM Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] SI hummers > It's time to get a grip on reality! Have these birds not been > surviving the cold? What makes you think they are doomed or need our help? They are surviving just fine. Little is known about their winter life, but researchers are finding that these hummingbirds can and do survive our winters - that perhaps the species is adapting to it. They have been banded, let nature take its course, and perhaps they will return next year. If they don't survive they were not meant to. > > > like viewing poor vagrants, doomed to die. I know it's all part of > nature but I couldn't help but thinking about alternatives. One which > came to mind was placing the birds in the National Botanic Garden > buildings for the winter. > I would think they could survive just fine with feeders and a large > space for them to fly about. > > Arlene Ripley > Calvert County, MD (but on the "other" coast at the moment) > > At 12:21 AM 12/9/03, Ruth Culbertson wrote: > >Is there a place the hummingbirds could be housed to keep them safe > >so they'd survive the winter? I've just been reading a book called > >"Rosie, My > >Rufous Hummingbird" by Arnette Heidcamp, who kept a stray hummingbird > >in a > >sunroom in her house (in upstate New York) over the winter and > >released it > >in the spring. I'm starting to worry about the little guys/girls in > >the Ripley Garden. I'd like them to survive. ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================