The Sap-Sticky Oddity of Forest Baths and Slo-Mo Birdies

 

Went on a little bit more of an adventure over the last weekend out at Cougar Mountain. We were rewarded with a lot of the same birds that live around our house, but also a pretty cool downy woodpecker of some variety and plenty of slugs and frogs. 

Allan, to my shock, barreled along the trail at her jagged pace of running and then stopping to stare at the ground and then running again and then pausing etc etc... She then came home and agreed to go right back out to visit our pond crow-bros. This is saying something for a self-declared "indoor child". 

It was fun and I'm down for more of these shenanigans, but I gotta just say: People aways talk about how still and soothing nature is...and I don't really get it. 

 There's all this talk about forest bathing etc. And the calm it brings. Are y'all nuts? Yeah, yeah, science. But seriously? 

This place is crawling with a rather urgent strain of life!

I dig forests, but they can be absolutely positively overstimulating!

Birds alone have myriad siren-alarm noises and their songs are absolutely amazing and totally cool, but also so fast the human ear can't even keep up to process them. Turns out, birds actually "hear faster" than humans. They can detect changes and gaps in sound as short as 2-3 milliseconds! Studies also show that their auditory nerves transmit signals about half as quickly or more than mammals, leading scientists to conclude that they are hearing "in slow motion". (sidenote: pigeons and other migratory birds can hear infrasound, which they use to navigate and that's cool!)

Hence why bird song sounds a bit gonzo to the human ear! It's like when you accidentally speed your YouTube up to 2x speed and everything sounds very urgent when an English speaker is talking that fast! (ok I routinely do that on purpose, but it does add a potent sense of urgency to do so!) 

Again, totally awesome, but I don't really understand why people think it's "relaxing". Bird is out there shrieking about how: (1) they didn't get eaten the night before, (2) they're down to fuuuuuuuuuuuuck, (3) it's about to start some shit in here if that other bird doesn't get out of its territory, (4) oh fuck, there's a giant ass predator attacking... and you're just sipping your cucumber water? 

Birds like bluejays even imitate calls of predators to scare other animals away. Some little bird out there is screaming at you to get the fuck away and we're all just like "ahhhhhh I can finally breathe out here with the futile curses of freaked out songbirds being hurled my way!"

Sex and violence, baby!

And of course, there's tons of other non-descript noises to layer right on top!

 I can't recall when I've ever been in nature and not heard an endless overlay of simultaneously vocalizing creatures in various sites of the mortal coil. Somewhere in this same forest, some animals are dying at the top of their lungs, some killing with abandon, some fucking, some partying, some fighting with their kids, and some just eating themselves sick before winter. It's a big old fauna rave, and let's not even get into the flora and all their kinky fungi!

Beyond that, I'll be honest, it can make me a bit claustrophobic: all those trees and shrubs and bushes and ferns and whatnot just piling up around me. 

I am hardly a city girl, but I don't 100% understand why I'm supposed to be Zen in the middle of a this utter swarm of life. It smells nice, but it also smells a lot. Like there are a ton of different scents to process all at once on top of the endless sights and endless sounds. Did I mention that sometimes it lights on fire?!? Or that sometimes you have to choose between running into a strange dude or strange bear?!? Did none of you see Blair Witch???

 I don't know, it kind of gives me a decent amount of alertness to be out there in the woods, fairly far from identifiable services and helpful bystanders in case something goes wrong. Trudging over uneven ground and surrounded by who knows what in all those shrubs and trees... it's just not my version of a day at the spa. (ok, I find most spa experiences deeply stressful as well... better to say, it's not my version of staying home with a blanket and watching Loki the Raven say "Gwah" to Elliot while engaging in devlish hijinks)

 I'm not even going to get started on the bugs or the pollen! Like let's be honest: there's a reason humans wanted to build shelters in the first place. Let's not get precious.  

Also "bathing" in a forest sounds endlessly disgusting. Like you'll never get the mud, sap, various seed parts and animal poop back out from under your ears. 

I know. I suck. 

But hey, to quote an actual conservationist: "Here’s the thing that bothers me. It’s become another commodified, self-help-style, precious “practice” of our secular capitalistic culture. The “new yoga.” A way to be “spiritual but not religious.” So I get asked things like, What length of time in a natural setting is necessary to benefit fully? How often? What exactly does forest bathing do for your life/health/well-being? I get speaking invitations from luxury spas..."

 So, I don't know. Really, I'm just a fussy AuDHDer who's allergic to 90% of what's out in nature, but let's pretend I'm taking a moral stance that aligns with my previously stated "appreciate the world around us and the animals who've adapted to live with us and realize it's all nature without commodifying 'nature' and having to disturb ever more pristine areas that don't even want us because we're too elevated to appreciate our actual habitat". Yeah. 

That said, I like wandering around just about anywhere and looking for pokem- er... I mean birds. So, oh, well. Let me lather up and dive into this forest!

It is pretty but admit it's a lot!

I imagine the benefits of "forest bathing" probably come from a mix of walking/physical activity, the placebo effect causing whatever mindfulness and meditation associated with it, reduced exposure to pollution, and generally having time to oneself at all. Also, yeah, they mostly compare "forest" with "urban" and being downtown anywhere is definitely a bit on the stressful side. Urban pigeons have evolved to have a lower stress response than rural ones, for instance. So, you know, yeah, for sure. I'll half grant your point... 

That said, when I used to walk from my place on Cap Hill to UW, it was definitely through the city, and I really enjoyed the walk, and felt very centered by it, so who knows. I think even in the urban, you can find beautiful and fairly breathable neighborhoods.

I'll bring it down to "cars and sirens are noisy and stressful" and "the air quality sucks" for urban environments, and "those things aren't as big a deal" in forests for forests. 

Me, though... What I want, what I really really want is the smell of the ocean! I love that about West Seattle. You get the screeching of seagulls and the scent of algae all the time! And tons and tons of beautiful rocks mixed with shells. Now that's what I call home! 

      Think this a glaucus winged gull but whatever it is, Allan wants you to know it is very smug
(All seagulls are apparently "so smug")

I always feel like I can breathe when I'm by the water. The woods make breathing a much dicier enterprise. 

Bonus: way more city birds enjoy the beach! And I like my crow babies, my seagull companions, and my pretty lil pigeons!

That said, there are plenty of nifty birdies right here where I live! On our daily walk we see tons of different species, in addition to my crow-bros. Heck, I can just look out the window and see more birds than in an entire forest walk!

After deciding the crows would rather I come to them if I want to feed them (well, really, walk past them while dropping food and going a respectable distance away so they can indulge), I decided that the bird feeder itself was working pretty well and maybe hosting all the little backyard (and front yard in this case) birds was a more achievable domestic goal. 

The squirrels took their time, but they have arrived. I left out a plate of crow food for over a week with zero interest from either the crows or the squirrels, but suddenly a couple of the little critters have discovered my house, the bird feeder, and all the goodies it provides. 

They do actually take from the crow food plate, so it isn't a rejection of those selections. They just apparently really want to crack that feeder as well.

 I saw one in action the other day flinging itself from the fence and landing on the feeder. That time, it fell off, but the stake for the feeder is now at an angle and likely going to fall over any moment now. So long game, I think they're winning. 

I know, I know.... it's better not to feed the wild animals, squirrels can cause havoc if they get into your house, and they can possibly transmit diseases if they bite you or you bite their poop, and it can get them sick if you give them the wrong food and and... I really just wanted to feed some crows, here, but they're here now and if there's individual food for them, they do seem less aggressively motivated to destroy the bird feeder.

 So I've researched how to sterilize the feeder area in a safe way and what foods are good/ok for them, so at least I'm not inadvertently giving them weird bone diseases and will try to make sure the house is in good enough condition to reduce the odds of an infestation. Honestly, so far it's only one very industrious squirrel and occasionally another one that the first one chases off. 

But yes, the birdies have arrived as well, and I'm quite thrilled. Our current birdfeeder area seems to be the haunt of a couple of house finches,

a couple of juncos and maybe some of their family, a variety of sparrows, a handful of cute lil chickadees, and occasionally a spotted towhee. 

The Towhee is prettier in person, I think! But no less sonorous!

I really do love the stranger and uglier bird calls. Like jays! They're such gorgeous birds but their songs are just rattling! If you hear an ugly bird cry, you're in for a treat!

But of course, my favorite of all the songbirds are my babies. And they won't come to me, but they don't mind if I come to them!

A handful of crows are now pretty comfortable flying up a bit closer to me and waiting for me to leave them a little offering. And I like taking advantage of the closeness to snap a few pics

Did I mention these babies are absolutely gorgeous?!? Their "black" feathers are soft and shiny and iridescent. They have cute little black eyes and a fancy little brush of rictal feathers. And the texture of the feathers as they lay over each other is just exquisite!

I am getting so much joy out of watching them go about their impish little lives and occasionally intersecting with them in our very careful way! Especially when they start destroying lawns and mobbing eagles for kicks (ok, really, food and defense, but whatever). 

So, yes, birding has snuck up on me. I don't know a ton and I am making an absolutely mess with the bird feeder, but it keeps me, well, kind of on the street I guess. More the trails and paths. I am just on the verge of going on my first official "guided bird walk" and I can tell you I'm pumped here!

I am. I mean it. 

At any rate, happiest of October days to all who celebrate! It's almost Halloween!