Treasures

“Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in

heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your

treasure is, there your heart will be." ~ Luke 12:33-34

On occasion, I’ve lamented that obsessive birding requires inventing new lists to

keep it interesting with new goals. There are nearly endless combinations of

location and time, ranging from daily to life and yard to world. Other options

could included plumages and behaviors. Confusing fall warblers certainly could be

an admirable list to keep. But I’ve considered more creative lists, such as “seen

from a vehicle” with sub-lists from stationary to highway speed. And the one

tongue-in-cheek list I often tease is the “S-list”. I suppose I got the idea when I

saw the rare LeConte’s Warbler I had chased down take a dump.

I find the fact that a number of mammals can be identified by their scat quite

interesting. Birds droppings are not quite as obliging, a splat is a splat. Birds only

have a single vent, so urine and feces are excreted through the same opening

and at the same time. This explains why bird droppings are sloppy white messes

with a few icky bits. There are a few exceptions. Owl pellets are not one of them.

They are the indigestible parts of the prey that they have swallowed and are

coughed up, so they are more like puke than poop (and worthy of a separate blog

no doubt). No, some larger birds that graze on land have feces that are more

solid and shaped. This includes turkeys and grouse, and, of course, Canada

Geese.

Geese are veritable fecal factories. They can convert the four pounds of

vegetation they are capable of eating in a day into sloppy, slippery, smelly, stuff

that is three-quarters water and dropped at a rate of five times an hour for up to

a hundred droppings weighing up to two pounds. Of course, we wouldn’t care

about that so much except for the places they prefer to store up these foul

offerings, our parks, golf courses, and manicured lawns. In particular, those

lakeside residences that are monuments to the accumulation of wealth are

especially vulnerable to the fowl deposits. It really comes down to choices about

where your treasure lies. The very simple solution to keeping geese of your

shoreline lawn is to allow a vegetated border that is at least as tall as a goose’s

eye, since they will not feel safe venturing out of the water past the barrier.

Simple, that is, unless you treasure your own view of the water and easy access

to it.

In choosing to store up treasure on earth, we have created the problem. It is a

tangible, physical expression of a spiritual disorder. The geese, on the other hand,

have much clearer priorities. They need to get nutrition as quickly and efficiently

as possible then rid themselves of the excess weight (as quickly as every twelve

minutes). Weight is an enemy of flight. Start paying attention and you will notice

that many birds defecate just before flying. Maybe we, too, should consider what

we need to leave behind to find our way to loftier places.

Prayer: Wild Goose, help us to let go of what we wrongly treasure so we

can fly where you lead us. Amen.