On April 21, Bill Jolly ("Abberton", Helidon Qld) when reporting on raptor
attacks on Azure Kingfishers, wrote:
"As a footnote, we didn't see any Azure Kingfisher for a week or so after the
Hobby incident, and when a kingfisher did reappear we had no way of knowing
if it was the bird involved. Interesting isn't it that we wanted the
kingfisher to escape, but we also want the BOPs to come here and to be
successful. It's one of those mixed feeling situations, like watching a tree
snake eating a Green Tree Frog."
That final comment reminded me of hearing a poem by an English poet, Ruskin
Bond - if I've remembered the name correctly.
National Parks, as conceived in the United States and established in
Queensland, are (or were in my time) managed to preserve their natural
condition to the greatest possible extent. An American specialising in
Park Interpretive Services, read the poem during a talk he gave to the
Second World Conference on National Parks at Grand Tetons NP (USA) in 1972.
The poem appealed to me so much that it has stuck in my mind, at least in
outline: it was in blank verse, so that without remembering the exact words
I can give you the flavour of it. And I reckon I can remember the 'punch
line' correctly. It went something like this:
Seated one day by a mountain stream,
I heard a sound like a branch creaking in the wind.
It was a frog caught in the jaws of a green grass snake.
I could not stand that hideous cry, so taking a sharp stick
I pried open the jaws of the snake,
and the frog hopped out quite spry onto a passing log.
Feeling pleased with the outcome,
I stepped back and wondered:
"Is this what it feels like to be God?"
"No", replied God, speaking in perfect French,
"only what it feels like to be English.
I would have let the snake finish his lunch."
If anyone can confirm the name of the poet and send me the correct version,
I'd be most grateful.
Syd Curtis at Hawthorne, Queensland.
H Syd Curtis
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