GIVING A HAND

Rex Burress

One time “Pop” E.J. Cain and I rode along with nephew Pete to unload a trailer of trash. Strong Pete was a one-man show, but his Grandpa picked up a flattened glove from the dust, and said,”Let me give you a hand!” That useless, out-stretched “hand” was something I remember. Especially the laughs.

In the same sense, most people are eager to 'give a hand' and help wildlife where they can. One example is a bird house on exhibit in the Feather River Nature Center. Bird houses are a clear indication of an effort to help provide a nesting place for crevice-loving birds, but this house has a nest plastered on top of the roof! Nature Center friend Loren Gill brought it down from Berry Creek, and said a pair of Stellar Jays had selected the structure for a firm foundation of their own nest!

Choosing a residence, whether a nest or refuge, is all the bird's choice since we don't know their hidden thoughts, but clearly you can see many pairs accepting the birdhouse offer, as well as streaming to wildlife sanctuaries provided by people. Some species simply do not use a cavity for nesting, and those like the Stellars Jay and robins usually keep their affair out in the open on branches, constructing clever assemblages of twigs, sticks, and mud mortar. The hanging bag of the tiny bushtits top the ambitious bird list. Their crafty construction is 10 times larger than the bird, accessed through a hole they leave in the side. Some abandoned bushtit nests are on display at the Center.

One of the most popular birdhouse-and-crevice-loving-birds is the bluebird. Often they use a woodpecker hole in a fence post as they like to be at the edge of open fields, so placing a birdhouse in the olive tree that adjoins my yard and overlooks a meadow became a bluebird mecca, especially with our garden to fleece for bugs and our bird bath to bathe in. They are strictly insect eaters and help keep a good balance, beloved by all.

English sparrows and starlings are menacing nuisances, as they also seek birdhouses and holes, and their bullish nature often overpowers native residents. As with the hummingbirds, wrens are feisty house-keepers and deter some of those ousting efforts.

Woodpeckers obediently utilize wood, destined by the creator to chisel holes and swoop among the trees. Each species has its style and there is little variation. There is sometimes adaptation to man-made structures for nesting, and cliff swallows find the under-structure of bridges perfect for their mud-plastered nests. Likewise, rock doves alias pigeons are fully acclimated to the nooks and crannies of the metropolis. Pergrine falcons select a ledge in the city and feed on pigeons. People didn't construct hi-rises for the birds, and often they become a problem, but never-the-less they have moved right in, determined to survive however humiliating.

Definite signs of giving a hand to wildlife can be seen in the establishment of desert 'guzzlers,' semi-sunken pits kept alive with water for denizens of the desert. Gambel's quail, and other arid creatures, including big horned sheep, benefit from that gesture. Mourning doves have been helped by attaching wire cones in trees to support their flimsy nests. The doves use them, too! In addition to bird houses, especially wood duck boxes, people build bat houses to encourage their mosquito-eating presence.

Wildlife Refuges are ultimate indications of someone caring about species; caring enough about animal and plant salvation to establish habitat and protection for the wild ones. The California Gray Lodge Refuge is ready to welcome migratory waterfowl. Go and watch the snow geese and ducks this winter. Give the refuges a helping hand! “Care About Wildlife Sanctuaries [CAWS].”

“So, they teach me the sweet lesson,/That the humblest may give/Help and hope, and in so doing/Learn the truth by which we live./For the heart that freely scatters/Simple charities and loves,/Lures home content, and joy, and peace/Like a soft-winged flock of doves.”

--”My Doves” Louise May Alcott