Is a green lawn really worth it?
From the Bible we read that even a fallen sparrow is loved, yet we want our lawns to look the best, and who really cares if a few birds get in the way!! We had the unfortunate sadness of cleaning up after 3 of our neigbors decided to "Tru-Green" their lawn. They tell you to keep your pets and children off a freshly sprayed lawn for at least an hour, but nobody is telling the birds that. They can’t read a little sign stuck in the front of a yard.
We’ve found 3 baby pine ciskins dead in our back yard together with a decreased bird population attending our feeders. I was worried that only the babies seem to be affected, but my friend and avid bird watcher (Gary Grubb) proposed that the baby birds were feed by their parents (who didn’t ingest the poisoned food, but rather regurgated) and therefore past it onto their young.
We held a funeral service for our little feathered friends (who Scott and Toby had called Chester and Max) . They even made little grave stones out of popcikle sticks and paper. They only saw the two birds, Kristy later found the 3rd. It’s sad to see, especially when we’ve watched mature birds feed and later bring their young with them and feed them right here in our back yard. It was fun to see these little birds flap their wings as their parents shoved food down their necks. But such is the great circle of life, which is bigger than us all, but will forever teach us the ultimate lesson of life.
So the next time you’re thinking about Tru-Chem’ing your lawn – remember the Sparrows which will fall and hopefully choose a more natural, safer approach for getting rid of the weeds.
