Storm Birds

 All plants and animals, especially birds (‘canary in the coal mine’) are so highly sensitive and vulnerable to changes in their environments that they are used as signifiers to changes in the natural world. Rainbirds or Stormbirds, are those those call is usually more prevalent before or during stormy weather. Places of wilderness are last refuges and preserves for many species that we depend upon for knowledge and guides. Indigenous desert nomads and dwellers have long learnt to observe the changes, to read the signs of the natural world. When ants and termites change their nesting insulation (sticks in summer, stones in winter) from one side of the nest or mound to another, then weather is imminent. Often when walking with indigenous elders birds of a certain species will circle and call. When I have asked the meaning I have been told to watch, listen and I must find the answer for myself.