By Lydia Thompson
It was a very interesting article. I stopped to read it because of the picture on the first page. There in the picture was a pale Red-Tailed Hawk sitting on a gray cement building. The bird was the only living thing in the picture on that page. There were no living plants, no blue sky, just the bird sitting on the gray hard surface. Pale Male, the Red-Tailed Hawk, is a celebrity. He became a controversial celebrity when he was evicted from his home. He had lived on that building for years but the people he lived with were not happy with the wildness of their hawk neighbor. After all, he was messy, but they had to live with him. The nest of this bird was protected. But with the loosening of an environmental law the nest itself could be removed when the bird was not using it for nesting.
So on December 7, 2004 Pale Male’s nest was removed from its exclusive address in New York City. The fact that Pale Male had lived and nested at this address for eleven years didn’t matter to this law. The only fact that mattered was that the nest was vacant. Never mind that for eleven years he was watched, monitored and cheered by a large group of admirers, some were birders, others were just fans of this wild bird in their large city. This group was stunned to see the nest heartlessly removed. Then Pale Male started coming back with sticks to rebuild his nest and those sticks would roll off the building. You see the neighbors had removed the pigeon guards as well as the nest. The pigeon guards are what held the nest in place. This incensed the group of admirers. The fight was on. The crowd of admirers had watched for years as this wild aristocratic bird sailed on and off this building. They had watched this bird bring sticks, then food, to this nest year after year. Each year the chicks would be watched and cheered as they left the nest.
This living symbol Pale Male had to reclaim this home. The result was, not only did Pale Male get his home back, he got an architect to build him a more stable structure to hold the nest. The article goes on to ask the question “why this particular bird”? While reading the rest of the article I stumbled on a new word for me. The word was biophilia. It is a fascinating new word. It was invented by Harvard etymologist E. O. Wilson in 1984. He uses it to describe an innate human yearning to connect with nature. This word is meant to describe what you can see, touch and be a part of. Not an abstract idea of nature. Pale Male is a bird that the crowd of admirers could see, not just a bird perched on a tower out in the country somewhere never seen or caringly watched. These city people had a connection to Pale Male.
“Wild America” is a book by Roger Tory Peterson and James Fisher published in the late 1940’s. In this book James Fisher concludes that with the new invention of the air conditioner for buildings that people would become more cut off from the out of doors. In doing more research on this word biophilia I came across a definition that includes and expands on James Fisher’s idea to say that this alienation started with the industrial revolutions, which moved more people indoors. With more people working indoors sealed off from the elements, rain, wind, cold, and hot, the connection with nature is suppressed, canned and we lost our sense of interdependence with our wild neighbors.
Here, on Jekyll Island, there is a unique opportunity to reconnect with our wild neighbors. In fact Jekyll is a little of both worlds. Jekyll Island can offer a comfortable place to stay and the opportunity for any person, to go outside. We can walk the beach, a trail in the the marsh. We can connect to that natural real world. Now nature isn’t clean and neat. It can be very hot. It can be cold. But a walk will also allow you to connect to creatures that that balances out those messy elements. This reconnection to the wild side inspires us, and renews us. Oh, by the way, on the facing page from the photo of Pale Male on the building was an out of focus area of greens and blues. The two pages seemed to be two separate images connected only because they were side by side. It was the living bird, Pale Male, that connected the shape edged, man made façade of building to the distant blurred greens of trees and blue of the sky beyond. It was an image of biophilia. The bird connected us back with nature.
If you would like to read the article on “Understanding Pale Male”, it is in November/ December 2005 “Bird Watcher Digest.” It was written by Paul J. Baicich. Paul Baicich has been one of the people who inspire me in the bird conservation work I do. Enjoy nature and take some time to watch birds while on Jekyll Island.
About Lydia
Lydia’s major focus is to intertwine her bird studies and her art. In 1983 she left her safe job and for over a year she traveled and learned about birds. She has traveled widely in US, Canada and Mexico. Now living in the Golden Isles of Georgia she continues her studies of birds & the art of the intaglio print. Preservation and Conservation of bird habitats are her major concerns. Visit Lydia on Wednesdays at the Wild Birds Unlimited Nature Shop in the Jekyll’s Historic District or visit her web site www.lydiabirdsinart.homestead.com. She is blogging at: www.coastalgerogiabirding-lydia.blogspot.com.You can also go on a Thursday Morning Bird Ramble from 8 am to 11 am. Seating is limited. Please call for reservations. 912-634-1322.
Photographs of Pale Male and Lola are courtesy of Lincoln Karim.
Tags: biophilia, bird nesting, bird viewing, birdchat, Coastal Georgia Birding, e.o. wilson, etymology, Georgia Coast Birding Festival, golden isles bird watching, golden isles birds, jekyll birds, jekyll island birding, jekyll island historic district, lola and pale male, lola hawk, lydia thompson, marsh birds, marsh wildlife, natural habitats, new york hawk, pale male hawk, red tailed hawk, urban birds, wild america, wild birds unlimited, wildlife viewing
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January/February 2009 |
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The south end beach of Jekyll Island is a major resting area for a wide variety of birds. They spend their time here resting as they prepare for their next feeding time. Many of these birds migrate for miles and miles.
