13 April 2014

Jungle Book Connections

Okay, back in NYC,  pinned to a chair with a herniated disc, waiting for my medical team to agree on what to do with me. (Remember Soylent Green?)  No? Good.

For those who think of St. Barths as Paradise, (i,e., moi), it is time for some sober reflection. It was not a Paradise for our evolutionary forbears. (I am assuming that my readers are among the 52% of the United States population that accepts Darwin's outrageous theory.)  And our ancestors' progeny that developed along different branches in the evolutionary tree and which abound today, (we call them monkeys, lions, birds, bees, fishes, centipedes, and lots of other geni that once all peacefully packed into Noah's version of a Carnival Cruise ship) struggle through life without organizations such as the League of Nations, or better still, the current United Nations, which guarantees peace and security for all. Gosh, it is easy to forget how superior we are to those poor animals.  They don't have the likes of  Al Gore, Chris Christie, George Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Vladimir Putin, and Katherine Sebelius to assure that everyone stays healthy, alive, is not threatened by their neighbors, and all that good stuff.

I am sorry to report that St. Barths fauna are no exception. Here are the ugly facts;

In January of this year, we noticed a beautiful bird who regularly perched atop the telephone pole in front of our house. He was colorful, had a nice song, and sat still enough to let me take a long lens shot of him.  Here he is:





Isn't he darling?  How lucky we are to have him as a neighbor. Ah, Paradise.

In the same month, we noticed another change in our environment: We formerly had a nest of tiny hummingbirds in the vicinity. They came every evening to drink from the flowers that encroach onto our deck. They do not fear humans, and actually go about their business as close as three feet from us during our cocktail hour.  I snapped this one helicoptoring by the firecracker flowers that encircle the base of the palm tree:




Ahh, the plot thickens. This year we saw only one Hummingbird, and he made but a single appearance.  Where was the family? We sorely missed the daily visits. 

So, on a rainy day, when my back was too sore to go to the beach, I did some research on the pretty bird perched on the pole, and was surprised to learn the multi-colored darling is a Falcon, and obviously has a nest nearby. He is an efficient predator. (Falcons come in all sizes, and are the fastest animals in the world, one having been clocked at 200 mph.)  But the really interesting thing about this beauty is his diet: insects, small lizards, and small birds.  (My pictures don't reveal how tiny the Hummingbird really is. For reference, the firecrackers he is feeding on are about an inch long,)

So, is there a connection between the arrival of the neighborhood falcon and the decline of the neighborhood hummingbirds?  I dunno. Is there a connection between Gore's loss of his home state and the election of Doubleya? Is there a connection between the closing of the lanes at the New Jersey end of the George Washington Bridge and the dictates/desires of The Governor of New Jersey?  Hmm, could be, n'est ce pas?

Ahh, no blue sky, no boats, no sun, snacking on painkillers, I'm jus' saying, ya know?  Connections, ya think?

A bientot.