Hey tweets, The current melee about individuals' behavior in the field
reminds me that we are each capable of doing good or harm. It is our
choice, one we make in hundreds of ways every day: the choice to be
kind or cruel, helpful or hurtful, loving or uncaring. Like it or not,
we are a community, warts and all. We achieve the most good for our
beloved birds when we act together, in peace and respect, remembering
that each of us in our own way loves the wild. Anything we can do
together as a community to foster love and understanding of the wild
will help the world preserve species that are under severe pressure
from us and from nature itself.

I had the privilege of witnessing a recent example of the goodness of
our community. This morning, I set up my camp stool inside the
greenhouse fence at the Fill to watch a team of five good people put
up our Purple Martin gourds!!! You should stop by and see how
beautiful our new addition is.

Eight white gourds are hanging off a re-used cedar (or possibly
redwood) pole just inside the fence. The gourds were supplied by you,
dear tweets, in response to my request for donations. The pole was
supplied by the UW Botanic Gardens. The decorative arms, ropes, and
assembly were supplied by one of the Friends of Yesler Swamp, Jerry
Gettel, who is a construction artist in disguise. Take a close look at
his ingenuity, which will give us the ability to raise and lower the
gourds for cleaning. The installation was supplied by guys from the UW
Botanic Gardens staff, who dug the post hole by hand, hefted the 13-
foot post with sheer muscle, and hung up the gourds carefully, one by
one. We were all thrilled when the pole went up and the gourds started
swinging in the breeze. Inside each gourd are clean cedar chips,
waiting for a martin passerby to take note and move in.

All together, we have created a work of art that will, I hope, bring
Purple Martins back to the Fill. No one of us could have achieved this
alone. Like everything else at the Fill, this project worked because
we all helped, because we all respect nature, and most of all, because
we try as best we can to balance the needs of people and wildlife.

We have within us the power to create much of our own environment, at
least the cultural parts. What we choose to create is up to each of us
- as individuals, but also as people working together. I hope when we
each make our choices about how to act in both our natural and
cultural worlds, that we choose to better our environment and bring
out the best in each other. - Connie, Seattle

constancesidles at gmail.com
www.constancypress.com
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