Tree Swallows
Lately I have noticed a great decrease in the number of Tree Swallows and other insect eating birds. Perhaps this poem may draw attention to the problems facing these beneficial creatures:
Jeanne B. Patric
Disappearance
This spring has perfect flowers.
The lilac’s never been so sated,
its blossoms overwhelm
with mauve delight,
my apple tree’s adrift in pink and white,
and just last week forsythia’s golden fronds
were brighter than the sun itself.
But sky is empty.
Tree swallows which in years before
dipped and zoomed
and roller coasted up on high
are absent now.
Gone.
Who knows why?
Their vanquished winter habitat?
The poisons killing off the flies?
Some other deadly blight?
Now crows and blackbirds fill the air
like drones,
and those insectivores,
so blue and light and lovely,
come no more.
Birds in Decline need your help!!