According to a news article called "Hong Kong A Tight Squeeze For Birds," habitat space is becoming more and more difficult for wild species to find, especially in the crowded Chinese sector of the world.

In speaking about the Mai Po Nature Reserve near Hong Kong, one of the few such retreats in China, Margaret Wong states: "Congestion and pollution are major problems in Hong Kong, to be sure, but experts say the rural environment here remains more benign than neighboring parts of Asia where many migrating birds encounter more disruption from overbuilding, foul air, and filthy water...the birds are like refugees--they have nowhere to go except squeezing themselves into crowded places here." The shy birds are even squeezed by well-meaning crowds of bird watchers on one side and by fishermen on the other who scare them away into danger. On the China mainland, nearly any wild animal is taken for food.

It seems the endangered black-faced spoonbills are especially stressed to find habitat, and if you are a bird, you just do not up and go to another part of the world, even though there is the ability to do so. It's written in the genes to occupy certain niches.

There are tight squeezes for wildlife in other parts of the world, too, and I was thinking about the small holes in the wood duck boxes scattered throughout the Gray Lodge Wildlife Refuge near Gridley, CA. Not only is the refuge squeezed in between farming fields and hunting areas, the wood ducks are enticed to stay rather than migrate by offering a tight little box for nesting. Selecting a tight crevice for nesting is the way of a number of birds, and most nocturnal animals spend the daylight hours in some tight den or hollow tree.

A tight narrow margin of habitat is a way of life for many creatures. Even with the power of flight and the freedom of the skies, birds still have to return to a ground base for food and shelter. The ground base is the catch, as nearly every square inch of the continent is someone's property unless it is secured by park status. Many land owners are more focused on extracting profit from ground resources via farming great expanses, or cutting the wood, or mining the minerals--or even rationing and selling the water! There are those who think they are entitled to the wildlife as well. Wild animals have to fit around these major uses if they can.

Happily, there are landowners who cooperate with wildlife land management and reserve habitat corners and fence rows for wildlife, especially in Missouri where they have an advanced form of conservation. Most smaller-scale farmers enjoy the wildlife and take pride in having coveys of quail and animals on their property. This is in contrast to some of the large operations especially in the Sacramento Valley where the big machines roar over great fields without obstacles. Even the gallant valley oak trees have been squeezed out of certain farming country.

The most striking example of a tight squeeze for wildlife is at the Lake Merritt Wildlife Refuge right in the middle of downtown Oakland, CA. The city has grown around the 150-acre salt water lake, but one sector was set aside in l870 as a sanctuary for wildlife, primarily for waterfowl.

Even thought the mechanized metropolis has expanded into a crowded community bristling with noisy bustle, the migratory waterfowl continue to return and occupy the lake in the wintertime. How thrilling it is to see the goldeneye and the canvasback and the scaups and dozens of other wild birds swoop down from the Arctic to retain their ancestral wintering place even though they have to coexist with occupied surroundings.

There has been an outstanding effort by the City of Oakland to help accommodate the continuation of the refuge, not only by maintaining the supplemental milo feeding program they first funded in l917, but also by supporting a Naturalist Program that sprung up around the first wildlife refuge in America. With the help of the Rotary Club, a nature center was built in l953 under the direction of William Mott and Paul Covel, the first municipal naturalist in the west, after he organized the environmental education project in l948.

The Naturalist Program continues under the present direction of Naturalist Stephanie Benevidez, and how heartening it is to visit the refuge and hear the wild geese cry as they glide down to their home base, and see the five vegetated islands harboring a variety of birds, and experience the flurry of activity when the birds are fed everyday at 3:30. It is a tradition. It is also joyful to see a group of children guided into the wonder of nature as part of the interpretive program.

To contribute to a facility such as the Lake Merritt program is a sign that there are those who care about wildlife sanctuary. "C.A.W.S." Care About Wildlife Sanctuary. The animals need our help if they are to continue their wild pattern and coexist in a display of sharing planet earth, and the people need the help of Nature Interpreters to better understand the world we live in. - February 17, 2001