Posted by Charlie on November 07, 2012 at 16:08:44
In Reply to: Re: Your Book, Ray, God and Birding posted by ray on October 30, 2012 at 00:10:24:
Thanks for the title. I`ll be taking some time off in a few weeks and hope to get to reading it at that time.
Birding has been a complete and utter pleasure. I`m involved in two programs, both volunteer, both very educational, both very rewarding.
One is provincial. I basically have to report on the status of breeding birds in assigned areas - breeding, not migrating. So if I find baby Trumpeter Swans swimming around with ma and pa in an area I`ll record that I found fledged young TSwans. Fleged young means that they are feathered but incapable of sustained flight. If I find baby robins in a nest I`ll record them as NY (nest young). If I find a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (a species of woodpecker) carrying food to a nest cavity, I will record it as CF (carrying food) meaning that I found confirmed evidence of Y-b Saps breeding in that particualar area. The compiled stats will give a picture of what`s where and can be used for future consevation efforts and such.
The other program is all about Important Bird Areas. IBAs are areas that have been identified throughout the world that are crucial to the survival of the world`s birds. Canada has identified close to 600 IBAs. I live near one.
My job as a volunteer is to count the number of birds using this IBA, identify threats to it and resolve them if possible. For example: This IBA is an entire ecosystem in upheaval. It and the huge prairie lake that it drains into has been flooded (a dam in the north for hydro production). A flooded marsh is a dying marsh. The dam prevents it from drawing down by keeping it submerged. Plant life can`t rejuvenate cause marsh mud needs to be exposed for the seeds in the mud to germinate. No exposure, no germination. No plant life, no bird and animal life etc... Marsh bird numbers have plumetted to all time lows. They can`t just go someplace else cause the places they might go to have been drained for agriculture. You get the picture.
The interior of the marsh is flooded and empty of most bird life. The crown lands surrounding the marsh could have remedial things done to them. I am working on some of that - bird house instalations, dikes, new ponds dug etc.. It involves working with officials to raise awareness. `Hey, birding is bigger than golf now. Did you know that you live next to an IBA. It needs attention. Would you like to sponsor a bird house, a pond, a control structure, a dike etc...
I have learned quite a fair bit and have improved my birding skills (local birding skills) big time. I have had a few hardcore birders volunteer to help me. It has been such a wonderful passtime, good for the mental health. We all need some of that, a bit of time everyday for some of the things that we like to do personally.
My kids are coming of age as per developing lives separate of the group and separate of the unfinished business Fran and I had in our lives as we struggled to come to terms with coming out of the group, and even the things that drove us into the group. In our case, Fran and I had to have individual healings before we could have a couple`s healing. We`ve had the individual healings and are well into the couple`s healing now. The kids can see that we have healed and have no one but themseleves to blame for their sins now. They did pick up on our unfinished business as kids, though, and spun off into blistering rounds of dysfucntion as I mentioned earlier in my previous post.
Speaking of coming of age: Fran and I are Great Grandparents now. I`m not sure just how great we are though - har, har.