Date: 4/30/2009 to 5/30/2009
Reprinted with permission from the Yellow Springs News
Morning may be considered a quiet time for humans, but for birds it’s
all about chatting. Male red-winged blackbirds call to their drably
dressed counterparts, downy woodpeckers impound their beaks for
breakfast nibbles, and goldfinch streak through cedars in their chase
as cardinals try to drown them all out with unsubtle piercing refrains.
The village teems with this natural orchestra partly because its home
in Glen Helen has been protected as a 1,000-acre nature preserve since
Hugh Taylor Birch gifted the northern half to Antioch College 80 years
ago as a memorial to his daughter, Helen. For Nick Boutis, avid birder
and Glen Helen Ecology Institute director, seeing the Glen as a
memorial sanctuary helps frame the community’s stewardship
responsibilities of the Glen in a respectful and delicate way.