Wonders wait close at hand
It was only a few minutes past dawn. Only one other car was
parked at Fremont Peak State Park.
We were there, of course, for the only logical reason
– to stare at a host of colorful birds through expensive
binoculars.
We eventually encountered the park’s only other visitor that
morning. After exchanging the usual inanities about the weather and
what a beautiful spot this isolated park at the top of the Gabilan
Range is (it really is), we asked him what brought him to the end
of a twisting road outside of San Juan Bautista.
Wonders wait close at hand
It was only a few minutes past dawn. Only one other car was parked at Fremont Peak State Park.
We were there, of course, for the only logical reason – to stare at a host of colorful birds through expensive binoculars.
We eventually encountered the park’s only other visitor that morning. After exchanging the usual inanities about the weather and what a beautiful spot this isolated park at the top of the Gabilan Range is (it really is), we asked him what brought him to the end of a twisting road outside of San Juan Bautista.
It was clear he was not interested in birds. He carried no binoculars, and he’d been peering under rocks. “Jerusalem crickets!” was his reply to the question.
He told us that the finger-sized insects often known as potato bugs actually represent many species, and that at least two have been found at Fremont Peak that have yet to be found anywhere else.
Most people find Jerusalem crickets to be nightmarishly ugly, but this person had found fascination in them.
Reduced to the fundamental truth, there’s really nothing more odd about looking at Jerusalem crickets than there is in staring at birds.
People – birders particularly – will travel great distances indulging their sicknesses.
But the person chasing potato bugs around a mountaintop reminds me that extraordinary things are always to be found in ordinary places.
Right in our own gardens and yards are things we’ve probably never dreamed of.
I wrote last week about a drama played out in a nest in our garden.
When our daughters were young, I’d watch them as they discovered the universe at their feet during trips around the yard. They’d squat and peer at a pill bug trundling along, then peer into the throat of a flower before returning to check on the pill bug’s progress.
Watching them was a gift to me, because it was an invitation for me to slow down and see the things around me from a fresh perspective.
Twice in the past week people have asked me about beautiful birds that had begun to appear in their yards. Both described the birds perfectly – black, smallish with brilliant red shoulder patches. Red-winged blackbirds!
It was years ago when I was first asked to identify “the black birds with red wings.” My reply was met with incredulity, as if a name as logical and descriptive as “red-winged blackbirds” could be anything but a joke.
Both recent callers did not recall seeing the birds before.
That’s certainly possible. Red-winged blackbirds commonly build nests near water. Their nests are often woven into the stalks of cattails or in thickets of mustard. Males display by calling from prominent perches, holding their wings to best display their color.
There do seem to be more of them around Hollister today. That’s due no doubt to the presence of more water around town. Detention basins at St. Benedict’s Church and Klauer Park have turned into lush wetlands, and in turn, homes for colonies of red-winged blackbirds.
Our yards reveal more than showy birds when we take the time to look.
One year I mulched a bed with the remains of our Christmas tree. A lush crop of morels followed.
When our apple trees were infested with aphids earlier this year, a neighbor asked if I wouldn’t be spraying soon. I said something non-committal, painted a broad band of tanglefoot on each trunk to keep the ants from caring for the aphids and waited.
Within a week, ladybird beetles were all over the trees. Several generations of them have taken care of the aphid problem, and the apples’ new growth is clean and healthy. In the process, we got to watch nature as it was intended to work.
