Tenacious urban survivors

November 1, 10:23 PMWildlife Conservation ExaminerCathy Taibbi

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Early fall butterfly amidst wayside wildflowers.

Photo: Cathy Taibbi

There was a book published long ago called Glory by the Wayside. That title runs through my mind every time I stroll along the drainage channel at work.

You see, whenever the weather permits, I take my break time to walk outside. I work in an older building without many windows. There is a parking lot all around it, and some lawn and tree buffer; beyond that is the expressway, separated only by a few feet of cement, the concrete runoff channel, a wood and barbed-wire fence, and a glorious explosion of tough, tenacious, opportunistic life.

I started bringing my cell phone along on my walks to capture images that I find particularly striking. Now, because of all the wonderful moving scenes I've missed, I'll start bringing my Kodak Zi8 HD pocket cam, too.

There are tiny songbirds flitting about in the brambles; butterflies in myriad patterns wafting from flower to flower; bright watchful lizards; skeins of Canada geese, raucous and jubilant; whirring cicadas, timid chipmunks . . . and even, last summer, a mother fox with a kit. Don't want to miss any more of it!

It's really humbling, though. All these wonderful, resourceful creatures, trying to make a living in (or volunteering to reclaim), what is basically an urban/industrial wasteland.

It's astounding how much life these fragmented, unkempt, discarded areas can hold. My fifteen minute mini-excursions have become cherished times to explore, watch, learn, list, and be amazed.
Don't get the wrong idea, though. Much of this is life banished from better neighborhoods, forced to eke out a living here.

We are the slum-lords of the planet, evicting Earth's tenants to worse and worse places. Probably we are seriously altering the progression/evolution of life. I am not sure how the fox and her cub managed to find enough 'wilderness' to survive, surrounded as they were by increasing acres of concrete and traffic. Not much to eat, no clean natural water (just the rain and runoff), few places to hide. Tough place to try to raise a family. Then the windswept, overgrown vacant lot across from my workplace (about five acres) was developed into yet another high-vacancy industrial office 'park'.

I worry to this day what happened to my foxes.

On the other hand, on my walk, the little roadside sanctuary supplies a bounty of weeds, wild berries, flowers and seeding grasses that create verdant microhabitats for a dazzling array of creatures. There are numerous butterflies and moths, buzzing and chirping insects of all kinds, occasional harmless snakes, and - my favorite - a sleek, bright-eyed lizard (a six-lined racerunner hatchling) which climbed onto my shoe to bask -- before realizing I wasn't a rock.

I'd like to encourage all owners of industrial properties to be mindful of the marvelous worlds their land can provide to wildlife. Nature is already under so much pressure from our relentless exploitation and expansion that even deciding to leave a corner of your lot un-mowed can make a huge difference to an animal trying to survive.

I will be taking more photos and videos over the next months, to document the progression of life in this little urban jungle. If any of my readers has taken a wonderful image or movie of tenacious, splendid life surviving in your own industrial 'no-life' zones, I would be happy to publish it here, with full credit. Just make sure it's not staged or altered in any way. The beauty is in real plants and animals finding a foothold in unlikely places.

Don't forget to tell us the story behind your images!