Birds of a Feather Don't Necessarily Flock Together ... A Lesson for Us Humans

Am I the only person who's ever gone birdwatching without binoculars? I managed to pull that stunt this past week when I joined a small group of bird lovers from my community as we went on a field trip to a nearby area famous for its huge flocks of birds at migration time.

We met up with an equal number of host field naturalists and set out on foot to our first birding stop of the day. There, on the ocean in a bay not far from the shore, were hundreds of ducks and gulls paddling about. From a distance, they were all just ducks and gulls to me. But when I got the opportunity to look through someone's scope, I could see that there were several different species!

The best identifier among us spotted huge flocks of American wigeon, northern pintail and some northern shoveler and mallard. The gulls included glaucous-winged, Icelandic (aka Thayer’s), mew and a California. In the distance were many bufflehead, greater scaup, a dozen or more western grebes and horned grebes, along with the usual cormorants, common loon, and great blue herons.

All. swimming. together. 

Are you seeing where I'm going with this? 

As social discourse grows more and more brutish south of the border, I find myself panicking at the thought of how we're all going to "be" with each other as the climate change $#@! hits the fan more often and more extremely. (My heart goes out to all those who have lost loved ones and beloved homes in the northern California fires this week.) 

A 2015 book by Wen Stephenson showed up in our home this week. It's called What We're Fighting for Now is Each Other. What an evocative title! But it's true ... or at least we ought to be fighting for each other's survival now — and certainly the children's.

Barack Obama said recently, "The character of our [i.e., his] country is on the ballot." On the ballot, and in presidential tweets, and on Fox News, and spattered all over the walls of the scene of another mass shooting in the "Greatest Nation on Earth." (My heart is also going out to all those who lost loved ones to the latest the-NRA-doesn't-believe-in-background-checks-for-people-with-mental-illness-and-a-history-of-violence gun incident, this time in a California bar.)

Folks, if we don't learn FAST how to live together in peace (or at least disinterest, like the ducks), how to support others when they're down so they'll support us when we're down, how to live by the Golden Rule when the world is falling apart around us, well, we can kiss resilience goodbye. 

We need to flock together, whatever the colour of our feathers. Hey, if several species of waterfowl can do it, then why can't we?

With thanks to Collective Wisdom