The "Dances With Wolves" theme has nothing on the bird watching world; a "Dances With Birds" event occurred this year at the Lake Merritt Wildlife Refuge in Oakland, California! On September 18, 2004, "A Celebration Honoring Birds at Lake Merritt" was held near the Rotary Nature Center that featured an original dance performance by interdisciplinary artist Patricia Bulitt. The unique portrayal of bird movement in dance, entitled "Under The Wing," began under the cork oak grove, proceeded across the lawn, and ended up on a floating platform in the lake.

I wish all birders could have seen the sensitive and beautiful dance portraying bird flight and the suggestive body gestures that depicted the plight of some struggling species. Patricia was "pulled" to Lake Merritt with the vision for this entire project, partly inspired by the story of "Helen the Pelican" that lived at the lake for many years before she died and was buried on one of the Duck Islands. Patricia was also concerned with "the ongoing destruction of wetlands as places of refuge for wildlife and places of spiritual beauty."

"There is a woman who lives in a house called listening...she listens to colors in clouds, to Autumn breathing into leaves, leaves changing colors and falling...she listens..." thus began the script that Patricia originated and was broadcast as she danced. Two professional singers, Sunshine Becker and David Worm, added their voices to the background. The birds of Lake Merritt were indeed honored, and I almost gasped as a flying brown pelican sailed overhead during the show like one of those airplane salutes, and cormorants, Canada Geese, and gulls flashed about in the sky as they often do at the refuge. If some smelt had been offered, pretty costumed Patricia might have been joined by egrets, black crowned night herons, and sometimes a brown pelican that have been indoctrinated by bird feeders!

Although the Nature Center staff fish-feeding at 3:30 P.M. each day was discontinued after Helen died in 1995, for years a varied cast of fish-eating birds would "dance around the bucket" for a free handout! But grain feeding for the waterfowl continues to be offered at 3:30 through the City of Oakland efforts as it has since the program began in 1917! It is an enticement to draw wild ducks, especially winter-time migrant diving ducks, in close to shore for easy observance at this oldest waterfowl sanctuary in America.

Through the years I have seen many people inspired by birds at Lake Merritt. Birds have that uplifting power to effect the imagination and emotions of mankind, as Audubon devotees will attest. During the 32 years I worked at Lake Merritt, I saw untold numbers of artists, photographers, poets, and writers produce exceptional original pieces, but Patricia Bulitt’s dance was something new. In recent years, a young artist, Kevin Woodsen, has set up his water color easel at the lake and produced some fine impressionistic works of art. At one time, famous bird artist, Roger Tory Peterson, would photograph the diving ducks, and he said Lake Merritt was the best place in the world to get closeups of waterfowl.

The attraction of the never-changing birds held me at that memorable job and provided inspiration for my own creative work. During my assignment starting with famous naturalist, Supervisor Paul Covel, in 1961, I saw the full cycle of egrets and herons and their first nests on the lake islands in 1970. That was also the year the two white pelicans, Hector and Helen, and seven other half-growns, were brought to the refuge from Pyramid Lake courtesy of the Fish and Wildlife Department. The two were picked to remain at the lake through a partial pinioning that kept them from full flight. Although the others eventually flew away, H & H remained behind to delight thousands of people through the years with photographic beauty and comical antics...a noble sacrifice that they seemingly enjoyed. They were fed three pounds of smelt every day, plus scooping up some lake herring on the side, too! Hector became tangled in a rope and drowned in the mid-1980's, but Helen lived on alone for ten years, escorting wild visiting white pelicans around the lake, and she was often courted by a white mute swan that mysteriously appeared off and on. Thus it is for a managed wildlife area. Some conditions have to be altered to allow for special effects, nature interpretation, and animal populations, but nature will bend with the changes if given protection and habitat.

When you watch birds enough, they take on personalities and individual characteristics distinguishing them from others even though general behavior is so consistent expert birders can recognize a species from a distance simply through their actions. There is the wonder and mystery of their travels and the envy of their freedom of flight. No less remarkable is the feather patterns and vibrant colors many species exhibit. There is their interaction with the environment and the roles they play in the cycles of life...and their song...as they express the joy of living.

Fortunate are those who find the birds, both in the field and in the mind! The vision of birds will enrichen your life and fill you with appreciation for all living things. A salute is deserved for the bird devotees and protectors of earth...and to those who interpret that wonder through word, pictures...and dance. October 6, 2004