Bird In Hand Poem by gershon hepner

Kiwi eggs can weigh a third
of their whole body weight, so males
must incubate them, as they gird
their loins and trim their avian sails
so that their female mate recovers
while taking leave for her maternity.
Now women try to get their lovers
to do the same, sign of modernity,
that’s a regression to a style
adopted long ago by birds
that cannot fly. It took a while
to learn that nurturers aren’t nerds.


Tim Johnston writes about a effort being made in New Zealand to save the kiwi (“New Zealand Builds a Nest Big Enough to Save Kiwis, ” NYT, December 28,2007) :
The plan, called Operation Nest Egg, is simple in conception but difficult to execute. Eggs are taken from kiwi nests in the wild and incubated in places like Willowbank. The newly hatched chicks are then taken to protected areas, many of them on isolated islands off the coast without predators, for about a year until they are big enough to fend for themselves. Then they are returned to the place their egg was found. The program began in 1994, but it has taken a while to perfect the process. It is expected to pass something of a milestone early next year when it hatches its 1,000th chick. Mr. McLennan says each chick that is returned to the wild costs about $2,750, a reflection of the difficulty in getting the eggs. The remaining kiwis tend to live in remote corners of New Zealand, and each pair of birds — they remain monogamous for life — controls a territory ranging from 12 to 100 acres, making it extremely difficult to find the nests. The egg collectors travel with a “kiwi caller, ” who can imitate the call of a male kiwi, or sometimes a tape recorder. Male kiwis incubate the eggs, an evolutionary necessity because females lay eggs as large as 30 percent of their body weight and need time to recover. When the males run out to chase off the intruders, the collectors can trace them back to the nest and take the egg to places like Willowbank. Mr. Maguire, the Willowbank reserve manager, says the chicks seem to suffer few ill effects from not being brought up by their parents and seem to thrive on their return to the wild.


12/28/07