{"id":3052,"date":"2021-09-06T08:56:43","date_gmt":"2021-09-06T13:56:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/?p=3052"},"modified":"2021-09-06T08:58:32","modified_gmt":"2021-09-06T13:58:32","slug":"my-warbler-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/2021\/09\/my-warbler-3\/","title":{"rendered":"My Warbler"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(Artwork by Maria McNitt – www.mariamcnitt.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The blue-winged warbler struggles as I extract him from the fine netting stretched across the underbrush.  Our instructor Caleb assures us that this will only be a tiny interruption in his migration, and the information gleaned from our bird banding will contribute to stewardship efforts.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I immobilize the bird between\nmy first and second fingers, as instructed, but realize that any flinch or\nspasm on my part will certainly snap his neck. \nI gently slip him into a muslin bag with a drawstring top and take\nhim to the processing station.  Caleb\nadvises us to place the bags inside our fleece jackets to keep the birds warm\nuntil we release them.  My warbler\u2019s wings flutter\nagainst my beating heart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I weigh and measure my bird, fluff his feathers to record his fat reserves, look for lice.  I have just flown back to the Midwest from a bird watching trip in Florida.  My warbler has flown north from his wintering grounds in South America across the Gulf of Mexico and then up through the United States to his breeding grounds along the Great Lakes.  The warblers fly at night, in diminishing numbers, but still in flocks large enough to be picked up by radar, a puckered veil draped over the night sky.  During the day they drop down to rest and eat.  What wild wind has deposited him here, in my suburban backyard?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last step is placement of\nthe numbered metal band encircling his ankle. \nThe band number is sent to a central data bank and his movements can be\ntracked only if he has the misfortune of recapture.  I hold him by his feet in the birder\u2019s pose,\nsuitable for photographs.  The group\ngathers around for a picture of this stunning bright yellow bird with only\nvaguely blue wings.   Far more\ncharacteristic is a dark black streak through his eyes, looking like a smear of\nmascara hastily applied in his eagerness to migrate and mate.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I recall my first sighting\nyears ago on a business trip.  I grabbed\nmy binoculars at the end of the day to investigate the brush circling the\nimmaculate corporate campus.  An\nunfamiliar song prompted me to wade into the tangled swamp in my business\nattire.  I struggled to follow the bird\nas he skittered from one branch to the next. \nMy shoes were ruined, my fancy silk skirt clotted into a wad by a jumble\nof burrs.  But suddenly, there he was\nabove me, my first blue-winged warbler, singing lustily, a tiny mote of\nwildness and wilderness above my head.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holding him now, I look directly into his fierce and lively eyes that accuse me of keeping him from his goal of fattening up during this brief stopover.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tonight he will again fling himself into the dark sky to head north, guided by an ethereal pull only he can understand.  This spunky spirit is not apparent in any of the pictures and drawings in my guidebooks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I stare at him with solemn\nawe.  He leads a harrowing life.  Weighing no more than a couple of pennies, he\nfinds himself on the cusp of tragedy on a daily basis.  When I let go of his feet to release him, he\nsits motionless on my palm for a moment, as if considering me, wondering about this\nnew human stench that lingers on his feathers, feeling the discomfort of his\nnumbered bird band.  My touch has tainted\nhim, stigmatized him, stripped him of his enrapturing wildness.  I bridle at my smug conceit that I\u2019m the gentlest\nof stewards and I chafe at the jumbo carbon footprint that envelopes me.          <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He flits off into the woods.  Later that morning his wheezy song drifts down\nfrom overhead trees.   \u201cSafe travels,\u201d I\nwhisper.<\/p>\nFollow Liza Blue on: \"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>Share: \"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Artwork by Maria McNitt – www.mariamcnitt.com) The blue-winged warbler struggles as I extract him from the fine netting stretched across the underbrush.  Our instructor Caleb assures us that this will only be a tiny interruption in his migration, and the information … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[33,1],"tags":[15],"class_list":["post-3052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nature","category-uncategorized","tag-nature"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iVc8-Ne","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3052"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3060,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3052\/revisions\/3060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}