[nfbmi-talk] Beautiful! Donna Published by Cornell

[Fred Wurtzel]

Hello,

 

Cornell university is the world leader in bird research.  It is an honor to
be recognized and published by this prestigious university.
Congratulations, Donna.

 

If you want to hear the birds in the article follow the link below and you
will get to the web version of the article where there are links to each
bird sound. To follow the link use your keyboard to navigate until you hear
your speech tell you you are on the link.  You will hear HTTP and a bunch of
stuff.  Arrow to the you hear htt or any of the letters in the link and
press enter.  If the sun is shining, the hands of the clock are properly
positioned, you are not wearing plaid with stripes, hopefully, you will get
to the web page to fully enjoy this very well done article.  

 

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/roundrobin/2012/04/19/sensing-natures-beauty-in
-sound-scent-and-touch/

 

Warm Regards,

 

Fred

Sensing Nature's Beauty in Sound, Scent, and Touch

The spring 2012 issue of BirdScope recaps the

Great Backyard Bird Count

and takes a look at one particularly skilled set of participants. The
"Michigan Bird

Brains" are a youth birding team organized by teacher

Donna Posont

. All of the members, including Donna, are blind, yet the woods are just as
full

to them as they are to any of us-as Donna shows us in this lyrical essay
about a

summer walk along the trails of Camp Tuhsmeheta in western Michigan (click
the links

to hear a

Macaulay Library

recording of each sound):

Courtesy University of Michigan - Dearborn

Trees are our guideposts in the woods. Walking along the trail, tapping tree
roots

with our canes, we stop and feel where a

Pileated Woodpecker

pounded into a tree trunk looking for insects. On another tree trunk,
inquisitive

fingertips tell us an insect planned to reproduce by using it as a hatchery.
The

tree fought back by growing a protective gall around the area and radically
changed

those plans. That whisper-soft thump is an acorn let loose by an oak. The
feel of

peeling, paper-like bark lets us know we are standing beside a white birch.
If one

of my companions picks up a leaf, its toothy edges reveal it comes from an
American

elm. The balsam firs guide us to a nearby picnic pavilion.

Moving down to the lake it's wonderful to breathe deep and take in the scent
of the

wild columbine blooming in June. Behind the thick undergrowth a catbird is
claiming

his territory. Up over the wooded hill there is an ever present chorus of

Eastern Wood-Pewees

,

Blue Jays

,

Red-eyed Vireos

,

American Robins

, and the always-delightful

Black-capped Chickadees

. The occasional

Ovenbird

is calling for the "

teacher-teacher-teacher

."  In the middle of it all we hear the "yanking" of the

White-breasted Nuthatch

, walking upside-down to find his meal. We heard a

Barred Owl

here recently during one of our jaunts. He didn't stay in one spot for long,
probably

busy hunting for a mouse. The kids love this bird's questioning call:

Who, who cooks for you, who cooks for you now

?

Along the sandy beach there is a new chorus performing for our auditory
delight.

To the left, in the tallest oak tree, a

Red-winged Blackbird

utters hisoak-a-ree

greeting. He isn't really being friendly, only trying to draw attention away
from

his multiple mates nesting in the cattails. On the other side of a bridge a
pair

of

Baltimore Orioles

is singing, claiming this neck of the woods for nesting. The melody of the
male oriole

is answered by a chattering female flying over the lake. She may be carrying
a twig

or grass in her beak to line her nest. Around Flanagan Lake, the chorus
includes

Song Sparrows

,

Northern Cardinals

,

Common Yellowthroats

, and thepeter-peter-peter

call of a

Tufted Titmouse

. If we manage to get there early enough, we might hear a gagging sound that
can

only be the

Great Blue Heron

patrolling for his morning breakfast of fish. A

green frog

utters his strumming banjo sound to accompany the lakeside singers.
Sometimes my

fellow hikers feel the imprint of a hoof in the mud where a deer ventured to
the

edge of the lake for a cool drink.

Next we wander to the camp's Botting Garden where blueberries, raspberries,
and strawberries

grow. The raised herb bed is home to aromatic basil, lemon thyme, English
thyme,

sage, chives, tarragon, chamomile, and cilantro. Cherry tomatoes grow among
the herbs

too. The fragrant scent of lavender leads us to the perennial bed, where we
find

more columbine and some dainty foxglove. Interspersed among the vegetable
and fruit

beds are marigolds and nasturtiums, nature's own insect repellents.

Without sight, our other senses are fine-tuned to nature's rhythms and we
find ourselves

in harmony as she reveals herself to us through touch, sound, and scent.