A male bluebird landed in the birch tree just outside our front window earlier today. He flew to the ground, then zipped right back up with a spiky caterpillar in his beak. I was supposed to be doing other things, but couldn’t take my eyes off the scene. Apparently it takes quite a bit of thrashing before a bluebird’s lunch is ready! We call them bluebirds of happiness, but caterpillars might see things differently.
The recent Creature Conserve Mentorship Showcase was definitely full of happiness—as well as dedication, beauty, and elegant connections, including: earthworms and fire in India; fungi and layers of history in a park in Panama; butterflies past and present in Britain; and a data-inspired clown-theater production by recent Twig & Ink guest Logan Robins. My co-Fellows Lauren Frausto and Natalie Field, along with Mentorship Director Derek Russell, also gave thought-provoking insights into their research. You can view all of these and more here. Huge congratulations to all!
My own presentation from the Showcase, entitled Dialogues with Nature, explores the question of how we listen to each other, and to the more-than-human world. How do you start a conversation when it feels like there’s no obvious point of connection?
What I refer to as my weird “paper-tied-to-trees project” (see examples in this post) emerged as a playful attempt to listen to and collaborate with the landscape around our home. I applied homemade charcoal and walnut ink to paper, tied it onto some of our trees, and waited. Would I recognize a response from something so different from myself? Time, weather, and the animals I share space are helping me figure that out. Along the way, I continue to wonder: what changes in us when we listen—and when we’re listened to?
The video of my presentation is here (click on the second file; my presentation starts around 57 minutes in). If you watch it, I’d love to hear your response!
Also, Creature Conserve scholarship applications are are open! More info here.
As always, thanks for reading!
With Spring coming and this week going this piece of finding a common language to communicate with our plant, bird and other of nature miracles brings up a topic dear to me. I just had a hip replacement and hence my yard of loving labor is not possible so I hired a gardening company to do my usual spring cleanup. I had to have someone special, someone who know our native plants and how to treat them with respect as she removed those things I left in the fall that might hinder the yard to send back love. It is incredible as she named each specie, reminded me of how to care for them tenderly. My body after five weeks of healing has taken the hint from my beautiful yard and is healing gracefully and completely. I am blessed with nature and the words of renewal it is sending me.