The world is a mask that hides the real world.
Thatâs what everybody suspects, though the world we see wonât let us dwell on it long.
The world has ways - more masks - of getting our attention.
The suspicion sneaks in now and again, between the cracks of everyday existenceâ¦the bird song dips, rises, dips, trails off into blue sky silence before the note that would reveal the shape of a melody that, somehow, would tie everything together, on the verge of unmasking the hidden armature that frames this sky, this tree, this bird, this quivering green leaf, jewels in a crown.â¦
As the song dies, the secret withdraws.
The tree is a mask.
The sky is a mask.
The quivering green leaf is a mask.
The song is a mask.
The singing bird is a mask.
Saturday, January 07, 2006
rescued peregrine flies away, doesn't look back
Lisa Konie of Wildlife Rescue prepares to release a 15-year old peregrine falcon at Shoreline Park in Mountain View.
Posted on Fri, Jan. 06, 2006
Rescued peregrine falcon released into the wild
By Lisa Fernandez
Mercury News
He was bruised and couldn't breathe very well. Less than two months ago, someone found him hopping around, too injured too fly, on Palo Alto High School's athletic field.
But today, the 1.5-pound rare bird -- a peregrine falcon -- was released into the wild, flying high into the clouds above the Mountain View shoreline.
``He's been vigorously flying around in my backyard cage, and he's been going nuts,'' said Lisa Konie, 33, of Saratoga, an attorney and ``raptor team'' volunteer with Wildlife Rescue Inc. ``He's ready to go.''
Most people, including the wildlife rescue team, have never seen a peregrine falcon up close. The small but powerful birds, which can kill a duck in mid-air with their talons and dive at speeds of 200 mph, were removed from the federal endangered species list in 1999 but are still considered endangered in California.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates there are between 1,650 and 3,000 breeding pairs in North America. They love coastal and mountain areas, choosing spots such as Morro Bay and Big Sur to live.
This particular black-headed, yellow-toed falcon, however, made his home for a while on top of Sun Microsystems in Santa Clara. The bird was hatched in a lab at the Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group and tagged before being released into the wild as a chick. Scientists at the research group have followed his movements for 15 years, hoping he'd mate.
To their knowledge, he didn't, and no one knows how and why he ended up at the high school Nov. 22 with a chest injury and fluid in his lungs, said Lauren Hasenhuttl, another wildlife rescue volunteer. The falcon released today doesn't have a name but goes by ``2/3'' because of the tags on his right talon.
Not only were wildlife rescue volunteers thrilled to send the falcon back into nature, but the event gave them an opportunity to highlight their cause. The non-profit group on Middlefield Road in Palo Alto annually sends about 2,100 rescued animals into the wild, with a paid staff of three employees, 200 volunteers and an operating budget of less than $30,000, Hasenhuttl said.
The group relies on grants, dues, fundraisers and small amounts of funding from the cities of Palo Alto and Los Altos Hills, she said. The group is looking for funds and volunteers. Anyone interested can call (650) 494-SAVE.
While the group routinely rehabilitates hawks, mourning doves and gopher snakes and sends them back into nature, the rescue volunteers said the peregrine falcon is definitely the most unusual and exciting animal they've nursed back to health.
Patric Kearns of Los Altos, who secured the falcon's daily diet of smaller birds from a friend who owns a quail farm in Sacramento, came to the shoreline today to watch the recovered bird fly into the wild.
``The point is not to be sad,'' she said. ``It's to set them free.''
For more information on Wildlife Rescue Inc., click on http://wildliferescue.ws
Mercury News researcher Leigh Poitinger contributed to this report. Contact Lisa Fernandez at lfernandez@mercurynews.com or (510) 790-7313.
© 2006 MercuryNews.com and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
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