A Buddhist's Diary July 11th 2009

Today I did it. I released Bird in the area where I found him. I've decided that Bird is male and although I refused to give Bird a name, I used the name Bird when I addressed him. This morning when it was still dark I stuffed him with shreds of meat, wrapped him in a soft flannel shirt and drove him home. He flew straight up into a mulberry tree and disappeared. Later, when I walked the dogs there were a whole lot of his family and friends flying about and calling to each other. I think I may have heard him still sitting in the tree calling for someone to come and put out a nice meal for him.

During the time that I had him I was stunned by his perfection. Everything about him was functional and beautiful. As he grew he acquired what had to be reflexive skills in flying, pecking and following flying insects with his eyes. Oh well, he's on his own in the world of tooth and claw now. Oh yes, he also liked to tear sunflower leaves to bits and he definitely ate what he tore off. Like the flycatchers I observed, he preferred the part of the leaf around the stem end. I may be wrong about their being Western Flycatchers, but my 1968 Peterson indicates that's what they are.

A Buddhist's Diary July 5th 2009

How strange life is! The dogs found this baby bird in the middle of the road looking a lot like a little rock. It appears to be a Western Flycatcher like the ones on my sunflowers. I am feeding it on little bits of meat and the occasional bug stuck on a tooth-pick. I think it can fly well, but I'm not sure it can eat without either me or its mom. I'm sure its mom will have forgotten all about it by now. I can't really train it to fly with its mouth open to snap up bugs. I thought about putting meat in its cage so flies will lay eggs there etc, and starve the bird until it realizes that its only hope is to eat either maggots or flies. I don't know why but I don't want to do this. I hope I will release it tomorrow. It will be happier I think. I'll miss its song in the early morning and evening. I think it's bedtime for birdies so I had better stuff its little gut before it tucks its head under its wing.

Leaf, Beak, Mandible.

This bird is making lacework of my sunflowers' leaves. I don't think it is eating the leaves, I think it is eating insects on the leaves. But the insects don't seem to be making the holes. I have stealthily observed the birds and I have seen their tiny beaks rip right through the succulent green flesh. So we have four lives here: mine, which, as interested observer and Tender of the Garden, has very little to lose, then the sunflower which is ten feet tall and a thing of beauty who, in the fullness of time will provide sustenance for many a winter creature, then there is the bird who needs instant nutriment and is finding it, enabling it to raise a family and survive, (I think it is a Western Flycatcher), and then there is the insect, that black thing below the main vein on the leaf. The insect must be getting something from the sunflower. Maybe it plays its part in the destruction of the leaf. I won't interfere. My garden is free range for all. After all I don't depend on it.
EXCEPTION!!! I bought a tomatillo plant and it came from the store infested with bugs and they are killing it! I go out each morning and unrepentantly murder the bugs, but it is hopeless.