Taking things for granted...

Taking things for granted...

I've been hearing things off and on in the last few months about the mysterious disappearance of the honeybees. This article is the most exhaustive thing I've read so far. I'm alarmed.

Then a couple weeks ago I was having dinner with some friends and someone commented how glad she was to see robins in the yard. I've always viewed robins as the dime a dozen bird of the midwest, but she explained that they have been hit hard by the west nile virus. Blue Jays too, and others.

Now I've started wondering about the woodpeckers. Eight or ten years ago when I lived a few blocks over on 8th St., it was not at all uncommon to hear woodpeckers. But I haven't heard any all summer. Of course I've been living a couple blocks on each side of 8th, so maybe I'm just in the wrong place. So I asked my friend who lives right across the street from my old house. He drinks his coffee on his front porch every morning and I figured he'd have heard them if anyone had.

He hasn't.

So are they gone? I've always taken them for granted, but life won't be same without them.

Of course if we actually lose the honeybees we're in deep trouble.

"Don’t it always seem to go
That you don't know what you’ve got
‘Til it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot"

Joni Mitchell - Big Yellow Taxi