As I look out my window into the warm spring sunlit scene, swarms of songbirds flutter around the bird feeder and I can also hear the elaborate trills of birdsong reserved for this season.
Soon they will be nesting and laying eggs – participating in the annual miracle of new birth.
Meanwhile, new birth is already happening for some local creatures. The northern red-legged frogs are laying their eggs several weeks early this year, thanks to our warm winter. These frogs are blue-listed in British Columbia, meaning that they are of special concern because of their sensitivity to human activities.
My student, Curtis Abney, and his fellow researchers have witnessed this surprising manifestation of early egg-laying, coming across numerous pairs of frogs in amplexus and the resulting egg masses.
Amplexus describes when externally fertilized species like frogs stick together so the egg masses can be fertilized just as the female lays them.
How the female finds the male is another miracle. The male northern red-legged frog actually sings underwater. Why? It doesn’t exactly make for a loud call. But somehow it works, and the females hear it. And by some small miracle, Curtis has learned to hear the underwater clucking as well.
I remember thinking when I witnessed the birth of our fourth child it still was a miracle even though I’d seen it before. As we ponder new birth this spring, we would do well to consider the legacy we are creating for generations to follow.
Will our children be able to visit wetlands and count northern red-legged frog egg masses? Will they be able to witness the wriggling of the tadpoles that hatch from these eggs?
Raising children green in the modern age can be complex. Vancouver-based blogger “Green Mama,” Manda Aufochs Gillespie aims to help parents do this.
Gillespie’s 2014 book, Green Mama: Giving your child a healthier start and a greener future, tackles many of the practical issues such as diapers and daycare but also asks some of the deeper questions such as “how do we worry about our kid’s future without going bananas?”
Paul Hawken, author of Blessed Unrest, said in a review of Gillespie’s book that “a newborn child is the result and expression of an act of love and within this beautiful book that love never ceases.”
I think a lot of it comes back to a sense of wonder. This morning I’ve been talking to my kids about how bizarre it is that northern red-legged frog calls underwater. And the miracle that the female somehow hears them.
As humans we are naturally inspired by such miracles, because we are miracles ourselves.
David Clements is a professor of biology and environmental studies at Trinity Western University.