EVEN IN INNOCENCE WE ARE PREDATORS 

By DR VICKI BISMILLA

As the cold weather settles in for the next few months, our thoughts wistfully turn to Ontario’s gorgeous summers.

As Africa-born, the sun is in my blood and nature is in my heart. I spent two weeks this past summer daily watching a mother robin sitting on her eggs in her nest, and when my grandchildren visited, they too were equally invested, especially my nature-loving, tree-hugger granddaughter.

The robin’s partner stayed close and often brought her food. Robins normally sit for thirteen days on their eggs and there were some days I fretted because both parents had left the nest in search of food for themselves and I wondered if they had abandoned their eggs. Perhaps the eggs were not fertilized and they’d given up? But they always came back.

This robin’s nest was a foot above eye level in a swing-set in our backyard with a heavy metal frame on which I have a grapevine growing with its lush big leaves providing good cover. On the fourteenth day I looked expectantly. I don’t like to go too close because expectant parents and chicks would be afraid of humans as predators. But from the distance of our deck I could see two tiny mouths, open beaks softly chirping, looking for food. Again, I was worried that both parents had gone and the chicks were alone. I hadn’t put seeds in the nearby bird feeder because I didn’t want other birds coming close to the robin family. After what seemed like a long time (actually it must have been only ten to twenty minutes) one of the parents returned with food and gently dropped it into the waiting mouths, followed soon after by the other parent with more. The parents look for soft food like worms and chew it before dropping it into the mouths of their chicks. It is so touching to see the mother bird sitting in the nest protectively over her chicks while the father bird sits on the edge of the nest looking on, guarding. When I was able to see more clearly the fluffy, yellow, downy pre-formed feathers could be seen gently moving in the breeze. After another week and several days of watching from a distance the bird family had flown their nest, hopefully because the little ones learned to fly.

These daily scenes repeated themselves in our front yard, high up in the wooden slotted frame of our carport ceiling on which a pair of sparrows expertly built their nest. What was interesting about this pair was that part of an earlier nest they had built fell and we found a tiny chick barely out of its egg lying on the ground. Sadly, it hadn’t made it.  After a week we removed the abandoned nest to the far end of our backyard thinking that the sad parents had left for good. But not so. A few days later two sparrows (maybe the same two?) once again started bringing grass, fluff and twigs and commenced building another nest in the next square of the frame. It must be prime bird-nest real estate as it is so protected from the elements. And those parents too brought food for their chicks following their hatching.

These are thinking, sentient beings with emotions expressed in the highest and most profound way, that of parents’ love for their children. Why can’t they be seen as parallel creations of nature, equal to human beings and not inferior?

All my life I’ve been fascinated by birds, animals and nature’s creatures. I remember as a toddler crouching on my knees in my parents’ garden, closely peering at ants as they scurried about with purpose, building their sand mounds, carrying food and going about their daily lives. I watched birds building nests and feeding their young.

Growing up, my favourite pastime was climbing trees, especially mango trees, eating the fruit on high branches; and of course meeting snakes on those trees and being very scared of them. Often after encounters with snakes I jumped off high branches, gratefully landing on soft grass and running; or not very gracefully landing on rose bush thorns, and running off, scratched and bleeding. Being scared of nature’s creatures is a good thing, it’s protection not only for humans but for the creatures, too, who are just trying to live their lives.

It is tragic that some humans wilfully venture into wildlife habitats like bear country to camp, and when they have run-ins with bears that are protecting their young, the bears are shot dead. It’s the human folly and arrogance, the bullying behaviour of humans encroaching on bear territory, that cause those deaths.

Even in isolated areas like Australia’s Granite Island which is not inhabited by humans, we are seeing human impact on wildlife. The tiny island is home to the smallest penguins in the world and their already diminished numbers are now threatened not only by natural wildlife predators but by humans. Sightseers are disturbing the penguins’ burrows, affecting breeding and the birth and care of new penguin chicks. Researchers and students from Flinders University in Adelaide are trying to get the government to extend protective measures to safeguard the penguin habitat to help the penguin population flourish.

It is encouraging to see educators, parents, grandparents and caregivers teaching little children to be respectful of birds, animals and creatures, to protect the environment and to nurture our earth for all its species. I am sure we have all seen photos by respected wildlife photographers of animals consciously cuddling their young, or showing love toward fellow creatures. I am hopeful that these caring people will teach children about what sentient beings are.

As for those birds and chicks in my yard that fascinated my grandchildren and me, they are now hopefully flying free, having prepared for Canada’s bitter winters.

Many birds make the unbelievable migratory journeys thousands of miles to southern sunshine, which in themselves are testament to their incredible intelligence; while others start their search for local roosting spots.

Contrary to what I and many others might have believed, the only time that birds sleep in their nests is when they are incubating eggs and to keep baby chicks warm for the first weeks.

The rest of the year they decide on a safe roosting spot and try to keep the same spot for the winter months. They choose spots that are sheltered from heavy rains and from predators, fluff up their feathers for insulation and tuck their beaks into shoulder-feathers to keep warm. Many birds share prime spots like tree cavities with other birds and huddle together.

I have focused on the sentience of birds in this column because we see them every day.

When we take a moment to think about how they have been created by the same miracle of nature that created us, we begin to appreciate, respect and hold in awe the immense wonder that is this universe.

 • Dr Vicki Bismilla is a retired Superintendent of Schools and retired college Vice-President, Academic, and Chief Learning Officer. She has authored two books.