World Wildlife Day – 3rd March, 2023
‘This is what you shall do: love the earth and sun and the animals’ Walt Whitman
‘March 3rd is World Wildlife Day. It is a United Nations International day to celebrate all the world’s wild animals and plants and the contribution they make to our lives and the health of the planet’ World Wildlife Day
What can you do today on World Wildlife Day? When we hear ‘wildlife’ we may think the beautiful animals in Africa, India or Australia – but our own birds, bees, and insects are wildlife too.
Spring is a particularly important time for our native Irish wildlife, the birds are nesting, the bees are starting to buzz, the hedgehog and squirrels are awakening from hibernation.
And they are all in danger from the toxins of civilisation – the wrong thinking and arrogance we have accumulated over time which allows us to disregard the other inhabitants of our planet.
Here are some thoughts on how we can help save our threatened species on this World Wildlife Day.
Leave the dandelions to flourish as they are the first food of the bees – at least until they turn into the jennyjoe’’s we used to blow as we said ‘s/he loves me, s/he loves me not’.
Avoid spraying at all cost, the sprays are inhaled by children and adults and seep down into the water systems.
Feed the birds – the bird food is really for the parents, they collect the ‘good stuff’, the grubs and insects, for the newborn hungry baby birds.
Resist the urge to mow the lawn until it is really necessary and then do it as infrequently as possible.
Watch out for awakening hedgehogs in the long grass.
Plant something – anything – in the window box or garden
We all tend to feel better in Springtime so let’s enjoy the lengthening Spring days, the bursting forth of the beauty of nature again this year. Let’s be glad to be here to witness it all again.
‘The Beauty of this world hath made me sad,
This beauty that will pass,
Sometimes my heart hath shaken with a great joy,
To see a red ladybird upon a stalk,
Or little rabbits in a field at evening,
Lit by a slanting sun.
(from The Wayfarer by Patrick Pearse).