The Wonders of God’s Creation
“Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer... I am the Lord that maketh all things.” Isaiah 44:24
In last week’s issue it was mentioned that the mother phalarope has some strange ways. One of these is that the female birds prefer to travel without their mates, and in flying either north in the spring or south in the fall, they always arrive at their destination a few weeks ahead of their mates.
Arriving at a promising area (on which all the females seem to agree) each one selects a spot that seems to suit her as a nesting site. Having made a choice, she gets to work with her strong legs and beak, digging a shallow nest in the dirt, either close to a pool of clean water or sometimes in a meadow a short distance away. She seems to consider she has completed her part of the job when she has finished the digging and leaves it up to the male to line the hole with moss or leaves when he arrives. Usually the females make their nests near others to form a sort of colony.
When the males arrive, each female picks out the one she would like for a mate. Then she shows him her nest and soon is busy laying three or four eggs in it. After this she leaves him and, like an obedient husband, he takes over the responsibility of incubating the eggs and taking care of the chicks when they hatch out. Sometimes the mother bird will decide to raise a double family. She will build another nest, lay eggs in it, and this time, seeing her mate is already busy on the first nest, she actually takes over and incubates and raises the second group herself. Aren’t these strange things for a mother bird to do?
When fall weather is coming the mother birds leave the little ones with the father birds and depart by themselves for the tropical lands where they will spend the winter. A few weeks later the deserted ones also leave on the same journey, joining her at a stopping point on the way.
A principle stopping point for the Wilson’s species is small Mono Lake in the mountains of California. This lake is quite salty and the home of myriads of little creatures called brine shrimp, which the phalaropes especially like. At Mono Lake they stop for a month or more, refreshing themselves with this nutritious food as well as mosquitoes mid brine flies, fattening up and renewing strength for the rest of their journey. Thousands of them leave together, temporarily darning the sky as they take off.
In the lives of these interesting birds we easily see God’s wonderful care over them and His wisdom in directing them north in the summer and south in the winter to preserve their great numbers and provide ample food at all times of the year.
His ways are best for each of us too, and the Bible gives us good counsel, saying: “In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy oaths.” Proverbs 3:6
ML-06/12/1988