Birdwatching
with Phyllis Yochem
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Published
by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. CLICK FOR NEWSPAPER DELIVERY
Tuesday, September 18, 2001
Birders give thanks for life
On Sept. 11, we all expected a normal, comfortable day. I had returned the previous afternoon from a happy experience in West Texas attending the fall meeting of the Texas Ornithological Society. A phone call changed everything. A friend asked if we had heard the news of the Trade Center attacks.
We immediately turned on the television and realized that life in the United States had been changed forever. But nature's basic drive for life, of course, continued.
The birds picked up their songs again, working to find food. We enjoyed a replenished water supply from much needed rain.
That evening the first meeting of the year of the Audubon Outdoor Club of Corpus Christi was held at the Fred B. Jones Sanctuary out of Portland. We gather strength from each other in such situations. Everyone there was subdued, thinking of the happenings in the world.
After we shared the good food brought to the covered dish picnic, our president, Leah Pummill, started the meeting. She said she had been thinking about what had happened that morning. She had written a little prayer to start us off. This was the prayer:
"On this day when so many lives in our country have been lost and forever changed, we give thanks that we may gather in this peaceful place - a sanctuary.
"Let us bow our heads in a moment of silence and give thanks for our safety and ask God's blessing on those who are at this moment fighting to save others and to give peace to those who have perished."
Later on, she told me that going forward with the meeting helped her deal with the sadness. "I felt much better mentally after I spent the evening there and with friends," she told me.
I think all of us did.
Phyllis Yochem, a Corpus Christi resident, has studied birds in
Texas since 1960.
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