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NATCHEZ NATURALIST NEWSLETTER
Issued weekly by Jim Conrad from the forest and fields
of the Sandy Creek Watershed 12 miles ESE of Natchez,
Mississippi

March 14, 2004

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WOODPECKER MEETS FLYING SQUIRREL
Near the woodland pond a Red-bellied Woodpecker
(www.fence.org/images/Birds/FenceBirds/redbellwdpkr.JPG)
was pecking at something inside a hole in a dead
snag about 30 feet up a Water Oak. I thought he might
be cleaning out the hole to make a nest, but he wasn't
removing debris so I couldn't figure out what he was
doing. And then it became clear.

Suddenly his wings flashed and he jumped back as a
Southern Flying Squirrel, GLAUCOMYS VOLANS, shot
from the hole and scrambled down the trunk with the
quickness of a mouse streaking across a floor. He
moved so fast that I hardly saw more than his size and
color, and a goodly amount of loose skin rippling
along his sides. A very nice, big-eyed picture of just
such a flying squirrel can be viewed at
[url=BellaOnline ALERT: For anti-spam reasons, we restrict the number of URLs allowed in a given post. You have exceeded our maximum number of URLs.

While driving home from Zion National Park last night, I was in the back seat. As I tilted my head back onto the headrest, I was rewarded with an amazing view of the night sky. As we drove, I reflected on my day, my place in the universe, and realized that, for the first time in a long time, I am really, truly happy. My eyes are so open to the world around me right now that sometimes it's almost overwhelming. Jim's comment "the insight that moves me most profoundly is that we animals are very beautiful creations" is so true. To think that we are the masters of this world is incorrect on so many levels and mankind's major mistake. If we could take everyone, just for a moment, and give them just an inkling of this concept, the world would be a much better place.

Marian

Jim said, "Beholding such beauty and realizing that I am part of it, my feelings blossom into the domain of spirituality. Therefore, my awe for animals is rooted in the realms of esthetics and spirituality."

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While I have always struggled to understand and accept formal religion and the various interpretations that people have given to the concept of *God*, I have never doubted for a moment that for me, nature and animals are MY spirituality, MY religion, so to speak. It has taken me until adulthood to be able to articulate this reverance and understand that the more I learn, the less I know, and the more complex the nature around me, the simpler it is to simply accept that not everything needs to be understood in concrete language; rather, simply feeling, on an emotional level, a sensory level, a spiritual level, is enough. Whether I am laying on the carpet, nose-to-nose with my cat, staring into her eyes, following the graceful gliding of a bird on the thermals, drinking in the intoxicating scent of a lilac, marvelling at the colours of fall or laying on my back at night under a glittering sky full of stars, I am never disappointed and never without awe at how these marvels, large and small, have come to be.

I remember laying awake in bed one night as a young girl and realizing that I am but one tiny speck in the large picture, on this one small planet in this vast universe; I am no more (or less) amazing or important or complex than any animal or plant or star.

My only belief system, my only rule, when it comes to nature, is that of respect. Respect, and do no harm. Period. Yes, nature is my religion, my spirituality; it calms me, comforts me, embraces me, renews me. It fills me up.