by Anura Guruge
on September 3, 2021
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I happened to see this, as a friendly suggestion cum request, on Facebook last week. It immediately struck a chord. Yes, I was aware that we, at a minimum, worldwide, are facing a bee crisis — an acute shortage of bees. The road that I walk on daily, viz. ‘Prospect Mountain Road‘, is known for its blueberry farms. Blueberries need bees for pollination. I was talking to one of the blueberry farmers a couple of years ago. The local bee situation had got so bad that they have a contract with a travelling ‘bees-for-rent’ outfit. Once a year they arrive with large trucks filled with beehives. They leave the hives on the farm for a few weeks — for a fee — & then at the end of the contracted period come & take the hives to the next location. I found you an example of such a pollination service.
Well, I wanted to do my bit in helping the pollinators.
I am sure we have some marbles in the house (given how many marbles I have lost over the years). But, I wasn’t going to spend any time rooting around for them. Instead, I ordered two bags of assorted, colorful marbles from (you guessed it) ‘Amazon‘. I wanted to have some marbles at hand. I looked for as exotic as I could see. But, when they arrived they weren’t anything special. Just your common or garden variety. But, that was OK.
When I went out to the bird bath I was going to modify, I saw to my astonishment & horror that there was already a dead wasp in it. It must have drowned! I guess birds devour dead wasps & bees they find — which is why I don’t see that many. Well, as you can see from the photos I put in the marbles to give the pollinators, as well as some of the birds, a place to perch on while getting a drink. I felt righteous. It was a small, inexpensive gesture.
Maybe you will think about doing this too. I will even send you some marbles.
P.S., We have other bird baths too. So, I am not depriving bigger birds of their fun.
