Migration

Beyond artificial boundaries

“Migration is as natural as breathing, as eating, as sleeping. It is part of life, part of nature.” ~ Gael Garcia Bernal

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It is spring in the Northeast. Knee-deep snow has thawed and I can finally see the ground. Bears, snakes and other hibernating neighbors are waking, seeking nourishment, and green sprouts are emerging from earth, seeking sun. Resident birds who made it through the harsh winter are singing, and others have begun their incredible journeys from South and Central America, Mexico and the southern United States.

Photo by viswaprem anbarasapandian on Unsplash

Moving beyond human-imposed borders, most songbirds fly at night and seek plant companions who offer shelter and sustenance along the way. Many seek a healthy supply of insects, too. But sustenance and safe shelter are not always easy to find these days. Still, somehow, many manage to return to their spring and summer homes.

As one of my seasonal rituals, I track their migrations. I make sure to have necessary window obstructions and remember to turn off all unnecessary evening lights. I anticipate their return by fostering the growth of plants whose seeds they enjoy, and plants that attract insects they need. I am still learning how to support them; how to be a good neighbor in a time of ecological collapse.

“If you take care of birds, you take care of most of the environmental problems in the world.” – Dr. Thomas Lovejoy

Today, as land and waterways struggle to adapt to unprecedented changes, birds, humans and other animals embark on natural and forced migrations, with many obstacles: resource and food scarcity, air, water, light, noise pollution, and hostile cultural mythologies. While many of us hold onto the illusion of a fixed existence, we humans are a migrating species, too.

“It is remarkable what birds can endure. It is tragic what they cannot.” ~
Amy Tan, The Backyard Bird Chronicles

Colonization, climate change, gentrification, loss of common land and migration corridors (paths followed by animals, birds, or fish when traveling between winter and summer habitats) are among the many reasons it is becoming harder for animals of all kinds to return home or to find safe places to exist. Paths that once connected wildlife are disconnected by paved roads, shopping malls, and interrupted by fenced-in land.

Monarch butterflies are also on their journey north from Mexico into Texas and southern states. Thanks to the gift of flight, they are able to migrate from Mexico naturally, but they also face obstacles. Searching for wildflowers where they can refuel, they seek their one and only milkweed where they can lay eggs. And prostrate milkweed, a rare species of milkweed that monarchs depend on after their long winter fast, is threatened in part, by border security activities disturbing land.

I wrote about the many injustices of the border wall in my latest book, Earthly Bodies:

Land bound animals on the border of the United States and Mexico have it even worse than monarchs. The construction of 458 miles of the wall during the ecologically and culturally disastrous Trump era¹ was enabled only by multiple waivers of the Endangered Species Act. The wall destroyed decades-old saguaro cacti growing in national parks, drained scarce freshwater sources like the Quitobaquito oasis in Arizona’s Organ Pipe National Monument (home to unique species of turtles and fish), and critical wildlife migration corridors, making it difficult for animals to move as they naturally would to find food, mates and travel along necessary routes for survival. A recent report by the Center for Biological Diversity speculates that the wall could lead to the extinction of up to 24 animals, including the ocelot, the jaguarundi, jaguar, Sonoran pronghorn, and Mexican gray wolf.

The wall also desecrated sacred sites of the Indigenous Tohono O'odham and Kumeyaay whose tribal lands are on the wall’s path, meaning that the Department of Homeland Security waived laws protecting Indigenous lands. In a 2020 article in ‘High Country News,’ Tohono O’odham Chairman Ned Norris Jr. states, “The O’odham have always been compassionate and welcoming. We have a long history of helping travelers passing through our lands. These values are part of who we are. These values are so ingrained in our worldview that it is reflected in our language, which has no word for “wall.”

“Migration isn't a one-directional process; it's a colossal process that has been happening in all directions for thousands of years.”`~ Mohsin Hamid

Migration and movement is natural for all animals. I think of the fact that for over 95 percent of human existence we humans were once nomads, foraging and hunting for our food just like the birds, butterflies and bears.

Today, I listen for the birds’ return by listening for their songs. Though I am also part of nature, as a human in the modern industrialized world, there is so much I have forgotten. I cross reference books and apps like Cornell’s BirdNET. A perpetual student of the wild. I am learning, in part, so I can celebrate the birds when they are here and be able to notice if and when they haven’t returned. It is far more quiet here than it used to be.

“Only a fool bemoans lost beauty while still in beauty's embrace, just of another sort.” ~ Christian Cooper, Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World

READING AND ACTIONS:
ACLU: Who Has The Right To Have Rights?
Rebecca Solnit: watch and read

Chop Wood, Carry Water

. Here’s the latest newsletter.

OUR WILD NEIGHBORS:
Celebrate Lobo Week
Learn more about the recent Coyote Awareness Week
Track bird migration with BirdCast
Ways To Help Migrating Birds from the American Bird Conservancy

JOIN ME:
Nourishing Earth, Nourishing Ourselves: Nurturing Multi-Species Communities Through Regenerative Landscapes with Project Coyote in conversation with Owen Wormser. Register here.
Earth Day Celebration
More events here

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Who is waking and migrating where you are? How can you support them?

1. The book was written before his extremely unsettling return.