Robin Rescue

“I’ve found eleven robins’ nest so far this spring,” Jeremy Bedwell told me when we first met his family, “twelve actually, but ravens found one and already got the babies.” We met the Bedwells, a small farm family who live several kilometers down the road from us, last June. A few days later we were helping the family move things to higher ground as the worst flooding in 35-years swept away their newly planted cabbage and carrot fields. I was touched when Jeremy showed me where he had put a robin’s nest to keep it safe from the rising floodwaters… that even during this moment of crisis, the fate of three baby birds had not been overlooked. Momma Robin was fully aware of the emergency move and continued to fly to the relocated nest with tidbits for her babies. I recently read a reprint of Rachel Carson’s THE SENSE OF WONDER. In the introduction to the book, Linda Lear writes, “She (Carson) hoped her book would inspire adults and children alike to experience the sensory and emotional in nature, and knew that if they did, they would have less appetite for those activities that threatened the living world.” I asked Jeremy to write a story about the robin nest rescue for our monthly newsletter, and to send a photo. He and his 16-year old sister Ayla collaborated on the following:

E-mail from Jeremy
17 June 2007

Hi!

Here is a picture and a poem that describes what took place with the robins. I didn't write it though, I hired my sister, she loves writing. We would love to read the newsletter when it's finished!

Robin Rescue
by Ayla Bedwell

The flood is coming very fast
What we don't move might not last,
Swirling water and tons of debris
Suddenly it occurs to me
The mama robin has built her nest
Of mop strings, twigs and all of the rest.
Up in the carrot digger, what shall we do?
For the carrot digger must move too!
We pick up the nest, babies and all,
Take it to a place where it won't fall.
Mama Robin, with an icy glare
Watches where we place it, away up there.
With a flutter of wings, she is up on the nest
On twigs and babies, and all of the rest.
The babies look more like Mama n' Papa each day
With their little peeps they seem to say,
"Thank you for saving us, now we have a good view,
All of us Robins give our thanks to you!"

(Photo by Jeremy Bedwell)

Planet Earth in our hands (Year of Planet Earth - UNESCO)

The human race needs its planet. We depend upon it completely, because we evolved from it, remain forever part of it, and can exist only by courtesy of the self-sustaining Earth System. The Earth is unique not only in our Solar System but, as far as we know, in the accessible universe. It is not just the only planet we have – it is the only living planet we know, or may ever know. The Earth provides so many riches, about which we have so much more to learn – as new research techniques are brought to bear. The more we learn, the more we understand that we must nurture the Earth as we would our children, for their sake.

HAPPY EARTH DAY!
... P. L. Morningstar