2023 Mycelium #19 Plovers

Tiny little hooded plovers are precious and a battalion of volunteers spend their summers monitoring and protecting these shorebirds.  The Thinornis rubricollis are in mortal danger from predators that come in a range of guises – other larger birds, waves, dogs, foxes, cars and humans. Some of the predatory behaviour can be managed, others are left to luck. I was deeply moved by all the efforts of one species mobilising to look out for another and doing all in their power to ensure the best possible outcomes for each breeding pair. I just wondered want kind of planet we would be living on if we all lived with this same level of love to all species at risk. And how we might live to make sure this doesn’t happen to those of our own kind who are under threat and in trouble from bigger predators, or the elements?

The sentiment of the small growing into something big. Here in the hall down the road I was watching a movement of a few people swell into their hundreds; a little bird inspiring systems to change; small incremental adjustments opening a path forward for long term improvements.  This is how all change takes place. The inspiration is often from an idea or issue quite small in the beginning but then takes flight. In between hearing from all the volunteer teams from up and down the coast line I also thought about the adage “on a wing and a prayer”.  This phrase coined in World War II when a US pilot Hugh G Ashcraft had a wing of his plane lost in battle and the radio airwaves invited people to pray the plane and his pilot home safely and so they did. The difficult and dangerous relying on a community of love to bring him to ground in one piece.  The miracle is that people set their intention on the same goal and over-ride what might look inevitable if left to chance.

We need a wing and a prayer more than ever as we face the threats and our own mortal danger of climate. Only through the mycelium of movements working together will be get out of the trouble we are in. I am full of hope we can get there with concerted, compassionate efforts pulling together and the acts of all the plover lovers is an instruction book. Add in a dash of mycelium and I think we have all we need.

Then we have our own predators to worry about – the ones who get in the way, our own fears and inertia, systems that are unresponsive or broken. I find myself in this predatory environment and wondering what of the techniques being used to save the hooded plover that can be deployed with predator management.  The lovely, cuddly spaniel that sniffs outs fox dens are needed in my efforts as well. Well trained creatures who can get across a lot of ground and let their handlers know what dens are active and which ones need to be fumigated to mitigate settlement of a family of thoughts.  The fox dens are everywhere in this landscape and they too should be a message to us about how dangerous ideas come to live among us and then come out into the open under the cover of darkness. Sadly I am seeing a few foxes roam around in the day time.

I am not in the business of fumigation but am relying on the skill sets of others, while I go about doing what I can to build community strong mycelium for good.  

Pt Willunga, April 2023