Baltimore Oriole
The Voice of the Forest for July is the Baltimore Oriole
July 15 Preface: As I write this the smell of plastic hangs in the eerie smoke from the fires in Ontario. The birds are not singing… at least not in the few minutes I can bear to breathe the toxic smoke. I cannot help but wonder how calamitous things need to get before we speak openly about what we are losing? Something inside tells me that more of us feel it than we know. I wonder if we are collectively silencing ourselves for fear of social backlash. Maybe through the apocalyptic haze I can make out others who are also sad for the silence of the songbirds today?
Did you know that our beautiful Baltimore Oriole is actually a member of the New World blackbird family: Icteridae? They are not members of the Oriolidae family known as Old World orioles.
Their breeding grounds span much of North America, while they winter throughout Central America. There is significant abundance (shown by the darker blue colour) in Nicaragua, where Balance is grown.
These fires are a nightmare, all human-made. I am looking at this unnatural sky in Toronto and it’s horrid what we have done.
"Over the last five years, Atlantic Canada has transitioned from historically mild wildfire seasons to experiencing some of the most destructive fires in its modern history, highlighted by unprecedented, record-breaking blazes in Nova Scotia in 2023 and severe fires in Newfoundland and Labrador in 2025 and 2026. While Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick have mostly escaped large-scale forest fires, the region as a whole faces a rapidly rising wildfire risk due to prolonged periods of drought and extreme summer heat." per Gemini...Clearly things are changing. Do we have to wait till the fire licks our feet in the more southern regions of Canada to take action?