‘O Spirit […] thou from the first

Was(t) present, and with mighty wings outspread

Dovelike sat(st) brooding on the vast abyss

And mad’st it pregnant […]'

(Paradise Lost, John Milton, Book 1, ll. 6 & 20-22).

This extraordinary first image, from Milton's epic poem, of a hermaphrodite bird, who, with sheer scale gave life, holds fast.

A statistic given by Al Gore: ‘97% of all charitable giving goes to human causes. Of the remaining 3%, half goes to pets. That leaves only 1½% devoted to the rest of nature – including the crisis-ridden oceans’*, the shrinking, drying and degraded land and the plight of other species that share our Earth.

The health of these Oceans affects sea birds and will, in turn, affect us. If we look, as Al Gore has, at these figures, alarm seems inevitable. Think back to antiquated signs/symbols: the Albatross hung, cross-like, round the Ancient Mariner’s neck; Odin’s two ravens (‘Thought’ and ‘Memory’) reported all to him nightly; and Thoth’s head – that of an ibis. And, think now to the small child who marvels at the flight and freedom of even a city-based pigeon. Our dreams, our ‘flights of fancy’ resound with birds and they, by turn, have come to symbolize knowledge, freedom and, perhaps, even wisdom and memory.

Looking at migration patterns, population numbers and health of populations is complex; yet, ignoring worrying patterns is something we do at our peril. Organizations who support the peoples and the countries prepared to take a stand need our support. As Margeret Atwood decreed: 'the birds have something to tell us again, and the truths are not comfortable ones’.

by Lucinda Devenish

12/1/2010

*The Author is indebted to Margaret Atwood’s, ‘A Wing and a prayer’, published in the Review, Saturday Guardian, 9/1/2010, both her ideas and her words. Margaret Atwood is joint honorary President of the Rare Bird Club within BirdLife International.