Wow!
What a difference a mere week can make!
Remember
when I told you about those geese on the frozen pond nearby? I told you how
cute they were chasing each other around and then flapping wildly as they tried
to land on the slick surface.
Well, I
headed on down to that same lake only a week later and you wouldn’t believe the
change!
First
off, there wasn’t so much as a chip of ice to be seen anywhere. None! The lake
was entirely liquidy, with waves sloshing on the shore and the whole works.
My four
little geese had been joined by another couple or two (or three?), and there
was lots of honking going on. It was a party! But there were other guests as
well. A host of mallards has shown up for the season. Some of them seemed to be
couples, too, but there was also a group of green-headed bachelors gliding
around.
And
just like that, out of nowhere, our peaceful, frozen winter pond has become a
sloshing, noisy, active spring hub-bub. Of course, we’re just beginning. It
won’t be too long before these water birds are being followed around by crowds
of tiny versions of themselves and the brown, crispy reeds will turn a rich
green and tremble with songbirds.
As it
is, I’ve seen greenery in a few gardens around town, and glimpsed a few bunnies
wearing their brown spring fur.
I know
all this seems commonplace. Happens once a year every year, right? Well, sure, but it’s always just so amazing
watching all the various ways Mother Nature takes care of the earth. Now if we
could only find a way to follow suit.
Someone
else was in the lake that day. Two someone elses, actually. A couple of little
muskrats glided contentedly among the birds sniffing away at last year’s old
reeds. They no longer need to dig out those holes in the ice. They have the run
of the pond.
Although
I was happy to see them, I was kind of sad, too. I’ve asked this question a
million times and I’ll ask it a million, billion more, because I just simply
don’t get it. Why must our wildlife be forced to sludge around in trash in
their own pond? In the photo below you’ll see one of the muskrat wending his
way around plastic bags, plastic bottles, and other unrecognizable garbage.
This is a common sight all around this lake. Just outside of frame there were
also numerous beer cans and bottles. I’d love to clean it up myself, but it was
all too far in to reach without a boat. Or at least hip waders.
But the
sight that made me cringe the most, the thing that made me clench and groan was
when I turned around after taking that photo and saw a perfectly serviceable trash
can only about five steps away. Can you imagine standing right in front of a
trash can and choosing to throw your garbage at the birds and muskrats instead?
Well,
it’s the start of another summer, and I suspect I’ll spend a chunk of this one
trying to determine what we can do about our littering issues in this world.
Any
ideas?
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