August 19, 2012Dear Sir,God created Nature. It is the instrument through which he works.And Nature is all we have. But we have lost our way, and are out of touch with our roots, and if we are cruel to Nature, she will pay us back, because what goes around comes around. How do you think God feels about the eradication of his creatures? (a word derived from ‘create’, God’s creation of course). What is lacking is basic human kindness and love, and the ability to put ourselves in the place of others, not only of humans, but of all beings.In order to live in harmony, and I am not talking about racial harmony, (that would follow naturally) we must first realise that planet Earth does not belong to humankind alone, but to every living thing that walks or grows on its surface, flies in its skies, or swims beneath its waters. That goes for plants too. They only need water and sunlight to survive, but how many people think of watering a plant? They use it as an ashtray instead.Of course there are times when species get out of hand and have to be managed, but not by blanket eradication. And in any case by humane means, not to cause pain or distress to any living creature. All living things have feelings, and when we start acknowledging that fact and responding to it is when things might start going right for us.I especially love birds, and I have written countless poems about them. For me, they epitomise innocence and freedom.Following a suggestion that it might be nice to provide a bird bath in the park for our little feathered friends who might be stressed and thirsty in times of drought and extreme heat, I was told that pigeons, starlings and sparrows are considered pests in Bermuda and are to be eradicated. “Sparrows nest in trees,” I was told (If you were a sparrow, where would you nest?). We already know we should not discriminate between different members of the same species. In God’s eyes, all things are created equal. If sparrows were brightly coloured, red, blue and yellow, our attitude to sparrows might be different, but it shouldn’t be.I already miss the gentle cooing of rock pigeons and the sound of flapping wings in Blackwatch Pass, a perfect natural habitat, when there are no 4x4s going by. What about the cheerful chattering of starlings after a rain shower, or the chirruping of sparrows on a hot day. Anybody noticed? And Longtails are lovely, but Bermuda is not their only home.Pigeons were war heroes, blindly braving perilous flights homeward to deliver dire SOS messages. Starlings and sparrows are on the endangered list in Europe (but not through destruction by man). Starlings fly in beautiful formation and have the most wonderful iridescent plumage. If all these birds are eradicated, what a sorry place it will be.I understand chickens cause damage to agricultural land, and I sympathise with frustrated farmers, and clearing them from around farm fields is the only way to deal with them, but elsewhere, what damage do they cause? They eat all the bugs, insects, caterpillars, which would otherwise bug us! They have beautiful plumage and are entertaining to watch. They lay eggs, which in a time of hardship (which might only be around the corner), would provide protein, if only the birds were separated and managed. I have eaten a fresh bantam egg, and it was delicious. Where does food come from anyway? Most of us think it comes from the supermarket. A supermarket only has three days supplies on its shelves at any one time, so the shelves would soon go bare if shipments stopped for some reason. And hands up, who likes chicken? There’s a drought in the US which is threatening crops and anyone who thinks that starvation might not be on the horizon has their head in the sand. That’s pink sand.Chickens have been on this island since settlers arrived 400 years ago. These bantams are (were) descendants of those birds. They were brought here to provide food, and have since run wild. It is not “since the last hurricane when they escaped”. How do we think they got all the way to Coopers Island? That is one place where nature should have been left to its own devices. What is a nature reserve? ‘Take only photos’, it says. There is not a single chicken on Coopers Island now. What will we use to eradicate maggots and flies from discarded human food now? Pesticide? We should all start growing a bit of food at home, because ‘later’ might be too late, and a bit of home grown salad with a fresh boiled bantam egg and a bit of free range Bermuda chicken, raised on kitchen scraps, (and cooked using solar energy of course!) will keep us alive if the shelves go bare. And chicken manure is a potent fertiliser. We should get back to our roots and get in touch with nature.So the next time you see baby chickens bundled into a trash bag, as though they were trash, wriggling and squeaking, just think about it and have a heart.NATURE LOVERPaget