But ask the animals, and they will teach you;
the birds of the air, and they will tell you;
ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you;
and the fish of the sea will declare to you.
Who among all these does not know
that the hand of the Lord has done this?
In his hand is the life of every living thing
and the breath of every human being.
Job 12:7-10
Even the stork in the heavens
knows its times;
and the turtledove, swallow, and crane
observe the time of their coming;
but my people do not know the ordinance of the Lord
Jeremiah 8:7-9
The other evening I saw a bird at one of our feeders I'd never seen before. I called Ruth and we realized that there were three of these exotically blue, sparrow-sized creatures around the feeder. We scrambled to figure out what they were and it turns out that they are Indigo Buntings, not rare, but unusual enough that they were new to us. We get lots of birds, but it is fun to get a newcomer even though they were "here today and gone tomorrow.
Yesterday was Migratory Bird Day, although it is really both days of the weekend, so we can all be mindful of these remarkable avian creatures, some of which fly thousands of kilometres. It shouldn't surprise us that a lot of them are under pressure due to loss of habitat and human incursion. It seems that shore birds are particularly vulnerable and there are concerns that numbers are diminishing in Atlantic Canada.
I like Debbie Blue's book, Consider the Birds, which uses a phrase from Matthew 6 as the title. There are many bird references in scripture I'm partial to the verses from Job and I figure we have a sacred trust to honour and respect birds and all living creatures, with the exception of ticks, mosquitoes and blackflies. That's a Canadian thing, eh?
Go ahead and tell me why you love birds!
In 2018, we celebrate the ways we can help to protect birds every day of the year through actions, stories, and art. Our education campaign is changing and growing. After 25 years, International Migratory Bird Day becomes World Migratory Bird Day, joining with partners across the globe to unify our voices for bird conservation. Make your bird conservation commitment with us 365 days of the year.
I saw a male indigo bunting just this morning at the creek, then a female at my feeder in the yard. I am going out a little later to see if I can get a shot of the male. You entreat me above to tell you why we love the birds. I can't give a verbal answer to that. My hope is that this undefinable something, that seems unreachable through language, is apparent in my photos. I see a bird, even the plain old birds we are used to having around us, and I can easily believe in miracles. It's that I love. Each bird, not just birds in general, but each bird is simply a miracle.
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