Where the Wild Things Really Are

They are here all around us.  We are so lucky.   Just this morning, in the quiet of a soft, cloudy dawn, I heard the kuk-kakuk-kakuk of a Virginia Rail.  This Rail is a marsh bird - a very skulky, secretive bird who is hard to find and see, even for birders.  Rails are rather gawky waders, and in bird references, can be found under the heading "Chicken-like Wading Birds".  They do resemble chickens with shortened, variegated brown feathers.  This Rail has  a beautiful dense gray cheek-patch surrounding a fierce red eye.  The bill is long and reddish-orange, quite unchicken-like.  Actually, they're quite the dapper bird.
 Rails usually live in  remote marshlands, away from houses, traffic and human noise.   Our lake outlet is near houses, traffic and human noise, yet there is still enough marshland, enough water and cover to make this Rail happy.  He has been here, calling, for at least three seasons.

Many folks would argue the value of a bird that is rarely seen.  What do they contribute?
There is wildlife all around us, and most of it is rarely seen, due to well-placed caution on the critters' end of things.  We do see bears here in the yard, and yes, they can be a nuisance.  But think of what they're doing.  Think of how many pounds of berries it takes to fill a bear's stomach.  Who was here first?  Is it the bear's fault that what used to be a place to forage is now a house with a green lawn?

Development is a given. What I  believe is that we cannot allow ourselves to lose the wild things.  There is untold value in wildness.  To know that there are places in the world where wild things never, ever see a human during their lifespan.  To know that there are creatures that make their way through life completely out of human control.  To hear the distant, haunting call of a  bird or critter and not know what it is.  The mystery of that is  ancient and human.  The earth is not only ours.  "In wildness is the preservation of  the world" ~ a quote by Henry David Thoreau, says it all.

And here, where we live, we have birds and mammals all around, trying to make an honest living just like us.  We can all be here.  With forethought, flexibility and respect we can live beside them and enjoy their wild calls, hoots and honks. We are all connected on this planet and the diminishment of one species touches us all.

So enough with the preaching.  Please - step outside and listen.  You may not hear a rare or unusual bird, but even the crows in your yard are wild things.  If you really see them, something is there to be learned.
Crows may be the only connection with wildness that some folks have.  We are luckier here. There is deep value in it, no matter where.  We must cultivate that value and not let it disappear, along with the wild things.

We need the tonic of wildness, to wade sometimes in marshes where
the bittern and the meadow-hen lurk, and hear the booming of the snipe;
to smell the whispering sedge where only some wilder and more solitary fowl builds her nest, and the mink crawls with its belly close to the ground....
We need to witness our own limits transgressed, and some life 
pasturing freely where we never wander.  ~ Walden