Bird of Paradise

Alfred Russell Wallace writes (1869):

<One of my objects in coming to the Far East was accomplished. I had obtained a specimen of the King Bird of Paradise (Paradisea regia), which had been described by Linnaeus from skins preserved in a mutilated state by the natives. | knew how few Europeans had ever beheld the perfect little organism I now gazed upon. ...

Image courtesy https://birdoftheweek.home.blog
2022/03/25/bird-239-king-bird-of-paradise/

The remote island in which I found myself situated, in an almost unvisited sea, far from the tracks of merchant fleets and navies ; the wild, luxuriant tropical forest, which stretched far away on every side ; the rude, uncultured savages who gathered round me—all had their influence in determining the emotions with which I gazed upon this "thing of beauty.” I thought of the long ages of the past, during which the successive generations of this little creature had run their course—year by year being born, and living and dying amid these dark and gloomy woods, with no intelligent eye to gaze upon their loveliness; to all appearance such a wanton waste of beauty. Such ideas excite a feeling of melancholy. It seems sad that on the one hand such exquisite creatures should live out their lives and exhibit their charms only in these wild, inhospitable regions, doomed for ages yet to come to hopeless barbarism ; while on the other hand, should civilized man ever reach these distant lands, and bring moral, intellectual, and physical light into the recesses of these virgin forests, we may sure that he will so disturb the nicely-balanced relations of organic and inorganic nature as to cause the disappearance, and finally the extinction, of these very beings whose wonderful structure and beauty he alone is fitted to appreciate and enjoy.> 

* Alfred R. Wallace. 'The Malay Archipelago' (1869) chap.31.

Land gulls

Two 80-acre fields at Cookley, near Halesworth, with winter wheat

(shades of yellowish green, blueish green)

on clayland, undulating, empty - just the crop, the soil, the flint.

Setting for a cold wind.

January the last.

Beyond me in space: white gulls.

Gulls in flight, over the field's face, roving. A few standing, breasting the sun.

White owls over a green sea.

A skylark sings, aloft. 

The gulls think downward. Raised on ocean-space and sprats, they turn to terrestrial matters: beetles and worms. 

All beneath a milky, blue and infinite sky.

They flutter to and fro: staring, stopping, turning to drop and rise - a mere second or two. Focused then refocusing. Steady meditation. Body thinking. Time.

How many are there – forty or fifty? 

But who watches gulls - those dustbins of the bird world!?

One could map their delicate trajectories: a script of white on green. Their nodes and lines, objectified. 

Instead, each bird enters my vision, enters my thoughts. 

In this moment each one enters my heart.

Their wavering flights criss-cross my sight in a ceaseless, white-winged ballet. 

They catch the sun, like dew on wheat and roof-lines in distant villages. 

Land gulls.

The Wisdom of Solomon

It is Spring, and flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle dove is heard in our land.[1]

Sadly I expect turtle doves will be in short supply this year, despite the best efforts of bird conservation organisations, Chris Packham et al to explain the catastrophic decline of this species - along with the cuckoo and other precious summer visitors. According to Project Turtle Dove, its numbers have plummeted by 91% since 1995.[2] Cuckoos have declined by 65% since the 1980s.[3]

Instead, the voice of the lawn-mower is heard in our land, as some people strive to achieve uniform, level, striped surfaces. I suppose such lawns are the outdoor equivalent of a plain fitted carpet. The result is just lawn. It is not even 'lawn with flowers', or 'lawn with flowers and bees', or 'lawn with flowers, bees, ants and moles'. Lawn means lawn. It is monoculture.

Here is an example of a lawnista's approach to gardening.[4]

I'm delighted to have some of these species on my lawn. What is a weed?

About 15 years ago, the Bungalow garden was visited by a local TV reporter. Somehow she had discovered a web page I'd made explaining that I have notable biodiversity here, including Testacella haliotidea, a rare carnivorous, subterranean slug living in the vegetable patch. As we wandered round the garden trying to find the slug I wittered on about the wildlife, for instance the seven species of grass and sedge I have identified on the lawn, and its notable anthills. She then asked why I did not destroy the ants. They are "bad for lawns", she said. I was dumbfounded. I did not know what to say. I didn't say how much I love watching green woodpeckers probing around in the anthills or that all the piled up earth must indicate the existence of a phenomenal network of subterranean tunnels. I fell silent, struggling with my disgust at her question.

I feel a similar disgust when I see uniform lawns. A biodiverse lawn is more useful to birds, mammals, insects and plants; it has more ecological value. From a biosemiotic point of view, a biodiverse lawn is more meaningful than a monocultural one because it intrinsically contains more encoded 'difference', and hence more meaning. In my eyes that makes it more beautiful. Where a card-carrying lawnista might see disorder I see beauty and a wealth of meaning - and my heart rejoices. This wealth is not just there for me to perceive but for many other organisms to thrive in, as they search for home habitat and food. This is a shared world.

I suspect the lawn here is the last remaining fragment of the ancient parkland surrounding Brome Hall. The rest was been ploughed up many decades ago.

Uniform lawns are instances of the tide of biocidal monoculture flooding through the world. Rainforests are being replaced by plantations.[5] Faced with this creeping impoverishment of biological meaning, I invite all lawn owners to cherish their biodiversity in practical ways. For instance, wait a few weeks before first cutting, and see what species are already present. (It was only after doing this that I discovered I had two orchid species.) Don't use fertilisers or herbicides. Use a rotary mower with a grass box. Leave areas uncut until later in the summer and cut other areas in rotation. Don't kill all moles. 

Perhaps we should also go out and buy a kelim or Isfahan rug for the house - one featuring a Tree of Life or floral design !

Lesser Celandine

Spotted Orchid

As a joke currently doing the rounds has it, God and St Francis would surely approve of both designs.

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FOOTNOTES

[1] - The Song of Solomon 2.12.
[2] - Project Turtle Dove - http://www.operationturtledove.org/ [accessed April 2017]
[3] - 'Cuckoo decline' - https://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/bbs/research-conservation/cuckoo [accessed April 2017]
[4] - Lawn Weeds website - http://www.lawnweeds.co.uk [accessed April 2017]
[5] - 'The Impact of Industrial Agriculture in Rainforests' - http://rainforests.mongabay.com/0811.htm  [accessed April 2017]