HELPING ONE ANOTHER

Rex Burress

There was some fine examples of people helping one another during the Paradise firestorms of 2018. That help extended to livestock, pets, and even a coyote! We see similar acts of help in the wild animal world, too.

I was no farther from home than my backyard one day, when a handsome gray squirrel came loping through the leafy tangle, randomly searching for whatever edible opportunity presented itself.

Soon there was an assortment of birds hunting for seeds and insects, taking the squirrel's presence as an indication the yard was safe from predators. Sparrows and towhees on the ground, bushtits working the middle layer, warblers and kinglets in the next level, jays, flycatchers, and woodpeckers in the top. Each species instinctively knows where it best fits and generally adheres to that understanding though there are no border markers.

It was especially interesting to see a dozen yellow-rumped warblers fluttering in the air to catch tiny black-winged root gnats. Hovering gnats and hovering birds. The black wings of the Sciara genius gnat appears white in flight as they vibrate in a blur but move slowly.

Right on time at ten o'clock in October, the gnats were rising under the sun outside my studio window, adults emerging from the pupa for a brief mating-fling before the eggs are laid and the larvae starts it all over again. Either the bird scouts reported on time or instincts kicked in to help, but the drama developed. The gnat must be tasty, and for certain, it takes many for a meal! No wonder brush- birds seem to be hunting all day long to fulfill hunger with tiny bites!

Safety in numbers can often be seen over by the Feather River-side where various bird species can stick together temporarily while feeding in the same area, mutually on alert for hawks or other predators. Some flocks of the same species such as quail, habitually hang out together, and that trait is carried to the extreme in some social insects, especially honeybees, hornets, and ants.

Honeybees seem to be the best organized [and visible] of the big three; honey bees, hornets, and ants. Ants in the ground, hornets behind paper, and honeybees in the hive! Honeybees are the ultimate organizers with each function covered by a specialized worker. To manufacture so much honey—enough for the hive with a stored surplus, the bees invade their beckoning friends the flowers for the gift of nectar. It all begins with the egg, or is it the bee? Chicken or the egg? There is no beginning or end in the circle.

The fertilized egg is delivered by the queen after a torrid maiden flight, one male drone of many drones culminating the affair with her-majesty as the lucky one who explodes with sperm joy! The baby bees are destined to be workers helping one another by making a honeycomb of life to hold the liquid treasure the field bees bring home. The more predaceous wasps and hornets build cells of paper instead of wax and capture insects for storage instead of nectar. They work to promote life into the future.

Trees are helpers to a multitude of species through the manufacture of oxygen, wildlife homes, shade, and human commodities. There is no intention to generate wildfires that harm living trees as well as wood providing controlled fires to warm mankind. During the autumn season when leaves are falling, the leaf gall homes and remnants of bird nests are revealed. The woody habitat is home to the woodpeckers and all the mammals finding security in den trees.

Some organisms benefit from a symbiotic relationship with trees. Certain fungi, like Russula's mycelium feed on certain tree roots, especially conifers, and provide a helpful nutrition of nitrates to the tree. The list goes on and on of tree's important place in the role of a woodland helper.

“Everything in the Universe is hitched together!” John Muir

“Helping one person, one animal, might not changed the whole world, but it could change the world for one person, one animal.”