Like Canaries in a Mine Shaft

by Phyllis Staff, Ph.D.

They came back last week – lively little finches just beginning to show their annual caps of glorious cherry red feathers.

Their feeder is just a yard outside my office window, so they provide a relaxing break almost anytime during the day. They fuss and squabble, acting so churlish and unneighborly that I often wonder where they stuff their hostilities while they raise their young.

They've been a source of springtime pleasure for many years. This year they're a source of some concern as well.

I can easily identify one of the males by the prominent cyst on the back of his head. Feathers that would normally cover his crown with bright color stick up in a weird brown little tuft. The lump with its unruly feathers has

been on his head since his arrival. It shows no sign of disappearing.

My concern deepened yesterday when a female with a huge lump on the side of her face appeared on the feeder. At first, I thought it was only a sunflower seed, stuck there in the damp weather. I wondered why she did not brush it away.

This morning I could see the dark mass more clearly. No sunflower seed that she could knock off on a twig, this ugly tumor will mar her beauty from now on. If it continues to grow, it may cause her to starve.

I'm worried now. Of the two dozen or so finches who regularly visit my feeder, at least two sport abnormal growths. That's almost 10%.

I ask myself what's going on here. The most plausible answer is that environmental pollution has poisoned them. What the specific culprit might be I do not know. Nevertheless, I do know that if the environment is growing worse for birds, then it is also growing worse for humans.

We Are the Solution to Pollution

The finches, like the canary of legend, still live. Under most environmental conditions, we, as larger creatures, will probably outlive them. But for how long? And at what price?

We can no longer afford to lounge in our easy chairs, making fun of “environmentalist whackos.” We must become activists, protectionists, true conservationists, or we will not survive.

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