A little friendly criticism taken to heart
Got me to reconsider the impact of humans
If your point of view looks from a bird's eye
At habitat seeing loss but also seeing gains.
Nature preserves set aside on compromised land
Eventually recovering returning to a natural state
Creating an incidental island of habitat suitable for wildlife
That people can cultivate to encourage to thrive.
However it's the developed terrain that matters most
Not intended as habitat but recognized as such
When feathered wings with brains examine it
Finding food and nesting sites there for the taking.
Here in South Florida what was swamp has been replaced
Excavating a landscape leaving it littered with borrow pits
To mound up the margins as foundation to build upon
Catching water in the pits as pond or lake soon colonized.
Behind this house the little lake attracts the birds
Gallinules, spoonbills storks, ibises, limpkins, ducks all feeding
Cormorants, grebes, herons, egrets,, anhinga, osprey and eagles fishing
With squawking flocks of seagulls swooping down to drink and bathe.
As I watch them every day how could I miss the obvious
The abundance of these birds depends on all the pits
Constructed for real estate business but nevertheless
These birds have found a happy home here.
There are so many power lines and poles and structures
It seems especially in parks that mar the view I think
But the birds decide we are providing good places for nests
Caring not at all about my pristine nature esthetics.
For the birds that lived in the original swampland
The transformation of this place was a catastrophe
No doubt killing off most of the native species
Even while creating opportunity in a new ecosystem.
This is the story everywhere I think in a changing world
Some species will adapt and expand their range
Others will come to the end of their time to exist
People we hope will be among the former and survive.
