The Ties That Bind
Birds, Nature and Us
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
In
these highly personal essays, naturalist and historian Mike Foster tells how he
became fascinated with birds and committed to helping them in their struggle to
survive. He discusses the major
challenges facing birds and other creatures and suggests how you can make a
difference. He believes that life-altering rewards are available to those who
seek openhearted encounters with Nature.
Here
are some excerpts from his book. First, from Chapter 3... After
standing here a while, I notice two strange phenomena. The several
habitats surrounding me begin to blur into each other and become one world. Simultaneously,
a second world emerges, coextensive with the other, but summoned up by a psychic
dimension of topography. The first world, a natural setting, includes the
urgent, uncertain business of avian reproduction. The second, mostly a creation
of my mind, is full of sound and color, harmoniously composed of water and
vegetation, enhanced by dry air and a comfortable temperature, made glorious by
solitude and memorable by the sheer unlikeliness that
such a place should have escaped development.
Chapter 6... December 26: a fiercely cold and blustery day. What am I doing here? Call me crazy, but I’ve come here in terrible conditions to observe in person the survival skills of my four-legged and winged friends. Not so crazy. Makes me appreciate the comforts of home, the resilience of life, its gripping tenacity. As I grow softer and more comfortable, also more stale and stupid, I need to remember our origins in the wild. To draw strength from our animal relatives. Plodding around like this on a cold wintry day may seem foolish, but it puts me in touch with the elements that have blended so intimately with human history. There’s a deep satisfaction in doing so, far more impactive than the temporary discomfort I experience.
Chapter 12... By preaching its mission of constant growth, the proponents of modern corporate capitalism have crafted the greatest utopia ever imagined. Unlimited growth is not only a logical absurdity, it defies the reality of limited resources. It is, if you will, the ultimate speculative bubble, and if allowed to continue unchecked will burst like all the rest. But this need not be humanity’s fate.
Chapter 14... And remember, birding is just a start. Learning to identify species is satisfying, and knowing the name of a bird gives you a connection to that creature you lacked before. Next, you have the opportunity to increase your knowledge, and deepen your satisfaction, by going beyond listing to learn a particular bird’s connections to other birds, plants, predators, prey species, and the whole network of life. Doing so will also enlarge your esthetic and spiritual appreciation of Nature, and introduce you to the beautiful and bountiful literature on birds.
Chapter 16... As the flora testify, this is dry country. Technically it is classified as semiarid, but on a hot summer day it is desperately dry, crispy dry, the kind of dry that warps the leaves of skunkbrush and splotches yellow the porous skins of cacti, like a cancer cannibalizing the photosynthetic, life-enhancing green. Even the grasses, as recently as ten days ago a hopeful kelly green, have now reconciled themselves to a stoic tan. Rabbitbrush stands firm, stout, wispy strong, boasting of its adaptability, but every growing plant here could use a soaking rain. It hasn’t rained in weeks, and the exuberance of early spring, the temporary lushness, has vanished. Even imperturbable lichen, growing everywhere on the volcanic outcrops, looks more brittle than usual. Within minutes a good rain would restore its vitality.
Chapter 17... Despite the problems threatening all natural systems, and therefore threatening us, too, I am encouraged to realize that many, perhaps most, of those problems can begin to be solved by viewing them from a community perspective. For example, to the extent that we have an “energy crisis”, it is not in our dependence on foreign sources, or even in the world’s dwindling supply of petroleum, or the polluting effects of oil spills and burning coal. Those real problems stem from our over dependence on fossil fuels. But the crisis derives from our absurd attitude that maintaining a wasteful, inefficient, unsustainable, and, yes, immoral lifestyle is good for us, something to which we are entitled.
Chapter 20... The ancient Greeks were not alone in connecting virtue with community. A common element in all ethical systems is that same respectful concern for others. All faiths and major philosophies seem to recognize the social duties and bonds that make us human. So if that be virtue, let’s have more of it! Virtue has endured a bad press from time to time. It has been confused with the prissy starchiness of the puritan, the arrogance of the self-made man, or the self-righteousness of the zealot. It is none of those narrow bigotries, for by its nature it is inclusive. In the end humans cooperate not because it is virtuous to do so, but because it is practical. It is the way to get things done, especially when different beliefs and traditions must be accommodated. Cooperating to achieve results for the common good is virtue in action.
Chapter
21... Yes, continuity is consoling and comforting. But the unexpected lurks
everywhere. Broad-tailed hummingbirds always delight in displaying their
aerodynamic skills, and in spring they confine their enthusiasm to each other,
focused as they are on the ardent business of breeding. But in a few brief
months youngsters have grown from tyros to tyrants. Now they launch from
shrubs, rocket into the sky, duel with each other, then descend to harass and
intimidate whatever moves, including me. Rivalry between species is especially
fierce. A female rufous hummingbird, tiny but titanic
in temperament, charges all comers: a bee, a jay,
other hummers, even a mule deer that dares to munch a succulent flower.
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About the Book
Americans are great joiners. Millions of us join organizations devoted to birds, animals, natural history, and the outdoors. But joining is not the same as connecting. We have been slow to realize that Nature is in trouble. The climate is warming. Resources are disappearing faster than we can replace them. Species extinctions are accelerating.
To save birds and to preserve the planet we must first heal ourselves, because as intolerance and selfishness demonstrate every day, humanity is in trouble with itself. We can begin to save ourselves by realizing that our fate is linked to that of the natural world. We can begin to heal our environment by relearning cooperation, mutual respect, and generosity of spirit—virtues that will reinforce our intimate and infinite ties to Mother Nature.
Throughout The Ties That Bind: Birds, Nature and Us Mike Foster emphasizes the practical value of these virtues while elaborating the personal philosophy he has developed during a lifetime of outdoor experiences. His sympathetic connections to Nature provide vivid images of the natural world, especially birds. His message is informative and uplifting.
The questions the author raises in these essays probe subjects most of us prefer to ignore: Why are so many Americans still denying their role in global warming? How is the “energy crisis” mostly a matter of attitudes? What would bacteria like to tell us? Why is water shortage a moral issue?
In the voluminous literature on the environment, this book is unique in suggesting the transformative role birds can play in changing our attitudes to Nature. Based on solid biological research, expressed in a fluent and often lyrical style with a confident voice, Foster’s essays will convince you that birds and Nature are worth saving.
About the Author
A fourth generation Coloradan, Mike Foster has been in awe of birds since the age of ten, when two hummingbirds captured his imagination. Birds have had a grip on his soul ever since. Over the years Foster has walked through varied landscapes, climbed numerous mountains, and admired diverse animals, especially birds, who early on showed him the connectedness of all creatures. In The Ties That Bind: Birds, Nature and Usthe author describes the experience with a golden eagle in 1982 that changed him from a lover of Nature to an advocate for Nature.
Despite an early passion for birds and natural history, after graduating from Yale Foster decided to become a professional historian. He earned his doctorate in European history from Columbia University, and taught at Stanford and the universities of Illinois and Colorado. While climbing in Colorado’s mountains, he was drawn to the life of the 19th-century naturalist Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden, whose own enthusiastic approach to Nature inspired Foster’s second career as a biographer and a naturalist.
In a score of studies on early American naturalists, scientists, and artists, including Strange Genius (1994), the definitive biography of Hayden, Foster employs the historian’s perspective on current events and issues. In over thirty articles on birds and natural history, written for such periodicals as Colorado Birds, The Lark Bunting, The Dipper, and Colorado Environmental Report, he takes a fresh, inspirational look at our relationship with the environment. His writings have appeared in such journals as Travel and Leisure, Nation’s Business, Colorado Heritage, and the American Historical Review.
While leading birding trips for Audubon and for Denver Field Ornithologists, Mike tries to go beyond identifying birds and consider their wider place in the natural world. He lives in Lakewood, Colorado.