Category: The Heron

Finding Shelter among the Turkeys

by Gregorio Perez, posted in Hiking, Life, Nature, The Heron

Shelter me oh mighty Pine forest. Cover me with your limbs and protect me from the cold winter winds. Why is it that every time I enter a stand of pine trees I feel as if I am home? It reminds me of a story I once read about John Muir. Whenever he left his cabin in Yosemite he would say, “I’m going in”. Like Muir, “in” is where I would rather be. I planned to hike today not realizing that it was Super Bowl Sunday. I didn’t realize it because I haven’t had cable or satellite tv for over five years. I grew up in an athletic family. I played sports and learned many valuable lessons from them. But, as the years passed I felt the tug of another life; one of my ancestors. It felt as though I was passing through a door into another space and time. Call it what you will. Some might say it was an awakening. I don’t know. I just know I feel more connected to the trees and the birds in the sky than anything else in this world.

The photo above was taken at Oak Openings Preserve near Swanton, OH along the Ridge Trail (silver trail). It was a balmy 34 degrees F which made the snow wet and sticky. I hiked with three others and zoned out for most of the 6 miles that we hiked. I noticed the ease of my breath and the sound of my footsteps through the wet snow. As we passed from one Oak savannah to the next I imagined the Native Americans setting fire to the land as they once did. Evidence of recent prescribed burns was everywhere. The birds were quiet except for the occasional drumming of a woodpecker or the friendly chatter from a Chickadee.

When our group arrived back at the parking lot a fat tire posse was about to depart. Their bright jerseys looked out of place in a landscape of stark contrasts of black wet tree bark against pure white snow. I suppose the natural world is not so different with Tom turkeys puffing their chests and fanning their tails to impress the ladies. As for me, I plopped myself into my silver Jeep Renegade with hood stripe and sports rack on the roof and headed out; with my fanned out tail feathers blowing in the wind.

Char-LEE Effect

by Gregorio Perez, posted in Charlie, Life, The Heron

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It has been two years since my divorce was final and about four years since I moved into an old house in a small quiet town.  The solitude doesn’t bother me, nor do the long periods of silence.  I prefer peace and quiet anyway.  But, what does bother me is a life without purpose.  I often feel like I am adrift.  A lot of people tell me they wish they had my life.  It is nice, but freedom without purpose raises more questions than answers them.  I often ask myself, “What’s the point?”.  I’m reminded of Thoreau when I think about wandering.  He went into the woods to seek a simpler life but returned to civilization missing companionship.  In the movie “Cast Away”, Tom Hank’s character befriended a volleyball and named him “Wilson”.  I realize I’m not on a deserted Island, starving or delirious, so I think I can do better than befriending a volleyball.  So, instead of a volleyball, I bought an English Bulldog and named her Charlie.  She pees on the floor and bites on my toes.  She wakes me up at all hours of the night and steals my shoes.  She’s a four-legged menace to society, but she’s also adorable, cuddly, and did I mention adorable.  She’s absolutely what I needed.  I don’t wander as much as I used to.  I’ve slowed down and stay home more.  The decision to devote my life to caring for something other than myself has made me more focused. I even started writing again after a long hiatus.  Finding writing again feels like finding a favorite pen that got lost in the sofa cushions.  It feels good.  It feels right.  That’s the Charlie effect.  Thank you Charlie.

A Fierce Green Fire

by Gregorio Perez, posted in Book Review, The Heron

Some people wonder why I spend so much time in the woods?  Some people tell me I go to the woods to escape reality.  Some people say I must be in search of something.  Some people just think I’m weird.  The truth is there is a “fierce green fire” inside me.

“A Fierce Green Fire” is the name of a book by Marybeth Lorbiecki about environmentalist Aldo Leopold, author of A Sand County Almanac.  Leopold isn’t the reason I spend so much time in the woods, but he helps me understand why I do.  I’ve been going to the woods all my life.  I grew up along Beaver Creek just outside of Adrian.  It’s where I spent my summer days; catching frogs, building tree forts, and playing in the creek.   When I was 12 we moved to another home along the River Raisin.  I learned to shoot an air rifle in the flooded woods along the Raisin.  My dad said I was only allowed to shoot blackbirds; which we considered raucous vermin who stole food from his feeders.  But one day I broke his rule.  I accidentally shot a Robin.  I remember vividly seeing it fall from the tree.  When I walked up to the robin it was twitching and watching me.  I only had to watch it for a minute or so before the twitching stopped.  Then I watched a fierce green fire leave his eyes.  I buried that Robin in the woods beneath a Maple Tree.  Aldo describes this same experience in his younger days when he first shot a wolf.

When I was a kid I went fishing a lot.  Most kids love to fish.  But I really loved it.  When all my brothers were chasing girls I chased fish.  I studied them.  I learned all I could about new techniques and gear.  I caught a lot of fish too, learned to clean them and loved to eat them.  I still love to eat them.  But nowadays I rarely keep them.  I don’t keep fish for a lot of reasons.  When I was a kid I was the Josie Wales of fishermen.  All I cared about was how many fish I could catch.  Some days I just left them on the bank.  Like the outlaw Josie Wales I would say, “buzzards gotta eat” and spit on their heads.  Later on in life when I was working my way through college I got a part-time job at the Spring Valley Trout Farm just west of Dexter, MI.  They also had a catfish pond.  My main function was to assist the customers, keep the gear in good shape and clean fish.  I remember one hot summer day when a father and child came in to get their catfish cleaned.  The kid wanted to watch so they stood there while I pounded the catfish’s head with a mallet, cut the throat and ripped it’s skin off.  After that the father skurried the son outside to go find mother.  I have to give the father credit for allowing his son to see that process.  It’s good to know where your food comes from and how it’s processed.  Most animals we eat are deprived of their lives horrifically and violently.  So I don’t kill fish anymore.  If I do I say a prayer thanking God for the food that sustains me.  I think everyone should go to a chicken farm, or a CAFO or any food processing plant to see the ugly truth of where our food comes from.  Every person needs to see the fierce green fire leave the eyes of the creatures we eat.  It would do them good.

I go to the woods because I feel God more in a pine cone than sitting in a pew.   I dont work for humans anymore.  I work for nature.  Leopold said that we are “the meanest flower that grows”.  This is most obvious in our voracious appetite for new and shiny things.  We destroy everything in our path for them.   And most Americans are blind to it.  We chop off our feet to buy a new pair of shoes.  Progress is not bad.  I am comfortable.  I owe that comfort to progress.  But I refuse to give up any more of my wilderness chapel in the name of greed.  Recycle your old abandoned buildings that you left to rot in the city.  Leave my chapel alone because I would rather listen to the chorus of frogs than an iPod, smell the sweetness of morning dew on a Big Bluestem than expensive perfume, feel the cool Lake Michigan breeze on my face than spend a day in air conditioning, or float down the Au Sable than spew smog with a jet ski.  That’s just me.  Those are my joys.  I need wilderness to do that.  It has nothing to do with politics.  It has everything to do with a fierce green fire.

Birds to the rescue!

by Gregorio Perez, posted in Birds, Environment, Nature, The Heron
Yellow Warbler, Copyright Gregorio Perez

Any of my friends will tell you I get a little goofy about birds.  My dad introduced me and my brothers to birds.  I don’t recall a moment in my childhood when we did not have a bird feeder in our yard.  For a few years we even raised chickens.  Today I have my own feeders.  I like to photograph birds.  My artwork is about birds.  I enjoy identifying them by their song.  I own a good pair of binoculars for watching them.  I get updates via email on birding in Southeast Michigan.  I participate in bird counts.  On the 19th of December I helped count birds for the Audubon Christmas Bird Count.  Every year I learn something new about birds that fuel my passion for them.  One of my favorite birds is the American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos).  There are several books out there about the American Crow which describe their intelligence and social behavior.  I’m also impressed by the world travelling migratory warblers who travel thousands of miles without a gps.  The more you learn about birds the more you realize they don’t get the respect they deserve.  I personally think we humans would be a better species if we deflated our egos a bit and allowed ourselves to learn something from the birds.  They are perfectly adapted for survival on this planet.  We seem to be struggling in that regard.

I’ve given this a little thought.  Given our current problems with our economy and climate why not look to nature for answers to sustainability?  Organic farming practices are bird friendly and earth friendly.  Planting native plants and trees are bird friendly and earth friendly.  Keeping our watershed clean is bird friendly and earth friendly.  The things we can do to help the birds also help our planet.  That’s why I’m promoting the recreational birding industry in my hometown.  It’s good for the birds and it’s good for the planet.  This isn’t a new concept.  I’m also a member of Trout Unlimited (TU).  TU fights for the protection of trout habitat for the sport fishing industry.  Trout are the saviors of the great rivers of northern Michigan.  Unfortunately trout can’t save us here in Lenawee.  Geographically the River Raisin Watershed is too warm to sustain them.  So what else is there?  Birds!  Birds! Birds!  The River Raisin Watershed is located in the path of two major bird migratory flyways.  Let your imagination run wild here.  Lenawee County is also a major agriculture community.  We could be leading a transition from industrial farming to organic farming.  Instead of constructing more manufacturing plants why not reestablish the wetlands that once existing before they were drained for farming?  Could birds be the answer to a failing economy and a deteriorating climate?  I realize it’s not that simple.  One might argue that capitalism will prevent this from ever happening without Government intervention.  If you read the history of our great National Park Service you will find this to be true.  The human spirit is hell-bent on destruction and devours everything in its path.  But there are also equal amounts of faith in the human spirit.  If trout can protect the great rivers of northern Michigan can the birds save us here?  The answer lies in how much Faith we have and whether we live according to it.