Dealing with each
of the three topics in this post title with any degree of thoroughness could be
an exercise in futility. Each topic, however, has lately been brought to mind
by the activity around the small suet feeder suspended from our rear deck. An
exceedingly cold, snowy winter in northwest Illinois has failed to disperse our
traditional feathered winter residents. In our neighborhood they seem to be
thriving. Most of these birds are less often seen during the summer when they
inhabit the cover of warm weather foliage, busily reproducing. In the warm
season they obey an unseen, inner imperative to multiply their kind.
Winter affords
opportunity to observe certain species at close range. How close? I have suspended
a small wire cage from our deck containing a block of seeded suet a few feet
from my west-facing sun room window. Perhaps my avian friends don’t need the
food I supply, but their visits to our feeder have helped me contemplate lofty
thoughts about how our Heavenly Father cares for this world’s creatures during
all seasons and conditions and endows living things with skill and beauty.
God’s provides animals with coping skills.
Psalm 84:3 speaks
of the sparrow finding a home and the swallow a nest for herself. Chapter
104:27 calls attention to many varied creatures for whom God makes provision
when “these all look to you to give them their food at the proper time.” Jesus
proclaimed, “…not one (sparrow) will fall to the ground apart from the will of
your Father.” Generally, scripture contains expressions of divine care bestowed
by God on the creatures he created.
Even as our unusual
early March deep freeze still holds the landscape in its icy grip, some
songsters have sensed the longer day length during February and have begun to
serenade the neighborhood with more exuberant vocalizations. In their
instinctive awareness, they anticipate the coming of spring and the approaching
days when their efforts will be directed toward reproduction--mating, nest
building, egg laying, hatching, feeding, and fledging their young. (Our local
newspaper announced that yesterday’s March 2 high temperature was the lowest
high temperature, +3˚F, for any day in March in recorded history in this
region.) In less than two months our bird residents will obey their inner reproductive
mandate, including our neighborhood’s eight or ten winter resident bluebirds
who seem unfazed by last night’s readings of -8˚F.
Our suet feeder has
been visited by blue jays, cardinals, chickadees, downy and hairy woodpeckers,
flickers, juncos, nuthatches, red-bellied woodpeckers, starlings, and tufted
titmice. Birds not interested in the feeder--including bluebirds, cedar
waxwings, and robins--sometimes observe from a distance. Most unusual are the
collectively exuberant intervals when multiple specimens of six or more
different species await their turns at the feeder all at once. This morning six
different species scrambled to visit in less than one minute, with three on the
small feeder at once on one occasion. In between are long stretches when no
birds are anywhere in sight. A similar phenomenon occurs in the fall when
multiple species fly about from tree to tree, feeding, frolicking, and then
deserting the area. We are reminded of animated human enthusiasm at picnics or sporting
events. Our past posts on soulishness discuss
this fascinating phenomenon.
The specifics of
the reproduction process have great interest far beyond the visual observation
of animal behavior, nest building, parental nourishment of babies, care and
training of young animals, how the new generation adapts, and other factual
items of interest. Biologists deal with reproduction at the level of gametes,
zygotes, embryos and wonderful construction and integration processes of
various types of body organs and systems during gestation. We visually observe
our neighborhood birds and mammals, but even more remarkable miracles occur at
these levels.
Finally, we comment
on the diverse design features of our feeder visitors. When we observe the
uniqueness of feathers, bill shape, or coloring, and contemplate the catalog of
multiple physical features and adaptations of birds at our suet feeder, our
heart leaps with wonder. We must agree that knowledge of the theology of
creation extends from the birds in our back yard to countless thousands of
wonders our cosmos surrounding us each day of our lives.
