Knowing Our Neighbors
Warbler’s Wisdom is a weekly column by Jocelyn Hartley, our Creation and Justice Fellow from Disciples Home Mission and Green Chalice.
I come from a family of enthusiastic hikers–everyone except me has hiked the Grand Canyon rim to rim (some of them several times!) and we can even count an Appalachian Trail through-hiker in our ranks (woohoo Janelle!). Growing up, mom always brought up the rear on our hikes. Much to my dad’s and us kids’ annoyance, we’d frequently discover mom wasn’t with us and we’d have to walk back several minutes to find her. Invariably her attention had been caught by some bird or butterfly or lizard or wildflower or tree that none of the rest of us really cared about, and she’d have stopped to take a closer look.
Somehow, despite a knee injury and the effects of age, my mom can no longer reliably be found in the rear on our hikes. I may have mom in sight ahead of me and turn around to look for dad, and discover he’s nowhere in sight. When I go back to fetch him, he’s looking intently into the trees in search of the singer of an unfamiliar bird song.
How and when exactly it happened that the family got so enthused about our feathered friends is hard to pinpoint. But how the enthusiasm continues to grow is no mystery. Once you’ve started noticing who lives in your neighborhood, you also start noticing where they hang out, where they make their homes, and where they hunt for food. And so it is that while I couldn’t tell a flycatcher from a finch two years ago, I can now tell you that’s a Verdin family cheeping in the Palo Verde or a Gila Woodpecker poking its head out of a mighty saguaro.
Our growing interest in birds has brought our family a new level of excitement when we travel. What new birds might we add to our life list? But nowhere has this interest been more impactful than in our own backyard. Every morning and evening the bird calls beckon us to the backyard: who will visit us today? There’s a jolt of pride each time a bird takes an interest in one of the native plants we’re caring for.
Through birding, I’ve started to have a stronger sense of relationship with the natural world. The birds are my neighbors. Just like my human neighbors, I stop to say hello and ask what’s new when I see them out and about. If I don’t see someone out and about for a while, I start to worry. Has something happened to them? Have they moved out of the neighborhood?
I believe fostering a deeper relationship with our neighbors is one of the greatest tools we have in fighting the climate crisis and environmental degradation. It’s no coincidence that birding organizations are often extremely active and effective in environmental efforts. Last year alone, Tucson Bird Alliance planted 6,800 saguaros, treated 1,000 acres of invasive buffelgrass, and removed 6,000 pounds of trash from the Santa Cruz River in a single day. Birders are often passionate environmentalists because of their relationship with birds. When birders hear about Oak Flat being turned into a crater, or see a new housing development replacing a wash, or notice smaller and smaller monsoons, we know the harm it will do to our bird neighbors.
I’m not saying everyone should be into birding. Not everyone has the luxury of owning a house with a big backyard right by a wash and several pairs of binoculars. But I do think we need to try to grow our relationships with the natural world, and to foster urban habitats so that all people have the opportunity to grow these relationships. Part of the reason that it’s so hard to mobilize people around environmental issues is that humans are generally oblivious to the natural world unless there’s a natural disaster. We’re not awake enough to the world to see how fast it’s changing. But when you know your neighbors, you know when something’s not right. And you want to do something to help.
I’d like to encourage us all to wake up and then wake up some more to the life that’s around us. Not just when mice get in your house or woodpeckers make holes in your stucco. When you walk from your front door to your car in the morning, who do you meet along the way? A scraggly mesquite seedling, holding on to dear life somewhere there’s no water and rock hard soil? A hole in the ground that a ground squirrel might poke its head out of? You’ll gain a sense of relationship with your community, a sense of being part of the broader web of life.
*If you want to get to know birds better, download the free Merlin Bird ID app. It can help you identify birds by sight or song and will tell you who you’re likely to see in your neighborhood.*