Alot has been said about how much coronavirus has affected our lives. Our financial, political and social existance seems to have been altered in ways that we would never have imagined. Not only has our world changed, but so has the natural world. While the human existence went into isolation, quarantining from each other, we left the natural world outside all to itself. Suddenly and for an extended period of time, there were no humans interacting with the world. There were hardly any cars on the road, people, frightened of going outside or interacting with others, stayed inside, cooped up, but safe from coronavirus.
We were doing the right thing for the protection of our communities. But, what consequences were there for the natural world? One might say it was a welcomed relief, an escape from humans for a few months. As spring sprung in our neck of the woods, we realized how much we had missed nature, and perhaps howmuch nature missed us as well.
March turned to spring, and spring meant birds nests and tiny eggs. We watched a phoebe sit on her nest, we listened as a bluejay pair built a nest right outside our front door in a thick vine. We were present for a robin building her nest in our outdoor pavilion, within reach of our cameras. We witnessed the birth of some of the baby birds, and the destruction of the robin nest on the one weekend we ventured away from home for a few hours.
Bears walked down the highway. Herds of deer crossed roads like they were trail paths through the woods. Creatures we haven’t ever seen on the farm joined in the fun of digging in the brand new garden we were planting- bunnies! Then, when the juevinile hawks got a wiff of fresh young bunny, we watched them dive bomb the garden for hours on end. Suddenly, only two bunnies remained.
The song birds returned to the field birdhouses, blue birds were active again in the yard, eating bugs and looking so pretty on the fence posts.
Foxes came out of their dens and brazenly walked down the street, looking left and right before crossing.
The natural world allowed us to help- saving a tiny tree frog from our chickens, saving a hummingbird from the berry nets. We were awed everyday by the wonderous things happening on the farm!
The natural world came alive as we were hunckered down in our homes. What more wonder will coronavirus bring? Was this a blessing for us to reconnect with nature? For us on the farm, it was. We are grateful to live on the farm and enjoy all fo the beauty and wonder that goes with it.