Nature Connection: Letting Go Naturally

August is a busy time in nature. It’s when all the teenagers are out and about. They aren’t quite sure about what to do with all their independence, but they swagger and boast so no one knows they are really insecure and maybe even a little afraid.

Imagine all those young birds and animals as humans who just finished their first year of college. They’ve got a taste of freedom but still want someone else to feed them and pay the bills.

Many birds are finishing up their last broods of the season, and there’s a fresh crop of young catbirds, robins, cardinals and even blue jays learning how to fend for themselves. Young hawks, including ospreys, are brand new flyers learning how to take off and land, a feat made more difficult perhaps by their larger size and weight.

Not only must a young hawk learn to fly but they must learn to catch their food from the air as well. Ospreys learn to catch fish, Cooper’s hawks catch their meals on the wing, and others, such as the red-tailed hawks, need to chase down small mammals on the ground or in trees. No wonder we hear them complaining loudly when they are first out of their nests. It was much easier being fed. There’s a lot of skill involved in catching prey and some catch on faster than others.

To be fair, many birds of prey, including hawks, eagles and owls, bring food to their offspring for a little while. Coyotes and foxes do this as well. They will do this less and less and then one day will stop doing it altogether. This is when we hear the sad but very loud laments of youngsters.

Just like human teenagers, adolescent animals and birds make a lot of mistakes as they learn to be independent. Anyone who has watched a young animal try to cross a road knows this only too well. There’s a lot of cringing done by those of us watching these newly minted young ones.

Rabbits are prolific, and with good reason. They make easy prey, even for young predators just learning how to hunt. The baby rabbits in my yard would probably walk right up to a fox or coyote. They seem ridiculously tame. I guess if you are a newbie coyote or fox that is a good thing, but not so good for the baby rabbit. On the other hand, those that are skittish and learn to run if they sense danger, which is probably every other minute, last a little longer.

Many creatures reproduce in huge numbers. This includes many insects, spiders, amphibians, fish, crustaceans and mollusks. The parents never meet their progeny, which is just as well since very few survive to adulthood. One could include rabbits and mice in this as well. They aren’t all meant to survive.

For many birds and animals, the survival rate of the young is not high. In fact, in some species they may barely replace themselves by the end of their lives. Young birds are prone to predation, poison, collisions with cars and buildings, and starvation. Others get hopelessly lost during migration or swept up in storms or other disasters such as floods and fires.

The world is a perilous place for youngsters of all species, including our own. There are so many choices to make, and not everyone was paying attention when important information was being shared. Many must learn through trial and error. Others may just be lucky.

The adults of most species let go much more easily than humans. The catbirds in my yard are now feeding the last of the second batch of babies. These young birds fledged a little over a week ago and are basically indistinguishable from their parents. If they weren’t constantly crying and quivering their wings as they begged for food, I wouldn’t know they weren’t adults. It won’t be long now before the adults move on, leaving the whiny teens on their own.

There’s a lot of letting go in nature. Plants let go of their blossoms and then their seeds or fruits in order to ensure the next generation. We see this all the time and rarely give it any thought. Does a plant respond in any way when its seeds or fruits drop away or are picked or eaten?

As I watch the young terns and plovers learn to fend for themselves on the beach, I notice that many of the adults have already moved on. They came to the beach, found a mate, had their babies, fed and protected them until they could feed themselves and then, they let go.

For the terns and plovers, it is time to gather with many other shorebirds to feed and rest, feed and rest, and prepare to head south for the winter. This is true of many of our summer breeding birds. The egrets and night herons, orioles and warblers, towhees and catbirds, to name a few that will quietly disappear one day. Some will gather in large groups, like the swallows that roost in the dunes, but others will simply get up and leave, like the ospreys.

Many birds leave in successive groups. In some the females leave first, then the males, then the immature birds.

As for our mammal friends, some will stay in family groups for a year or so, but others are already exploring the world on their own, never to return to their birth family.

So much of life in our early years is learning to gather and make our nests, but in the end we, too, must let go.

For many of us, it is time to let go of old ideas that are hurtful to others, to let go of poisons and toxins and live more gently on the land. It’s OK; letting go is natural.