THE ROBIN AND THE SPARROW, CHAPTER 10

"Our volunteers have been just fabulous," Ole observed in his sincere and silent way, "Together we have inspired the media people through our "thought letters," poetry and have even entered their nightly dreamscapes in living color so they could better understand the urgency of the situation. Now whoever wishes can fly with me to check the forests again this very dry August.

Soaring gracefully through the skies they observed another heavily forested mountainside of burnished trees. A gentle breeze scattered the frail needles from their bowed branches, forming a growing and dangerous layer of tinder-dry kindling. They noticed a camper at a rest area beside the road and hovered near. "This isn't the area we camped at last year, there's nothing here, let's move on - all aboard everyone!" said the driver, as he stepped on his discarded cigarette butt.

Ole's sharp ears detected a crackling sound. The children had just buckled their seat belts as their father drove away. At the speed of light, Ole swooped down followed by all his helpers in relays, deftly missing the startled driver's windshield. Checking his mirrors he saw a dangerous scene back at the rest stop. He handed the cell phone to his wife, "Call the fire department and tell them to check on a forest blaze, I should have taken more care to stamp out that cigarette butt, hang on, we'll try to outrun it - did you get through to the fire department? "It's not ringing, we must be out of range of the cell phone tower," she answered.

Sensing the camper driver got their message, Ole's group caught a quickening updraft that gave them top speed back to home base. The construction crew working at the towers paused as they listened to the strange sounds. All eyes turned skyward. To assure attention the birds dived at the crew as other family members joined in the "Sky Dance." They circled, then followed their director making a sharp "arrow-like" turn in the direction of the forest blaze and repeated the performance until the foreman of the crew took notice, reached for his cell phone and called the Fire Department. He ordered his crew to drop their tools, abandon the working site and prepare to assist the fire crews as truck sirens raced toward the smoking skies and planes roared overhead to drop fire-retardant chemicals. After considering the raging fast moving fire Ole suggested it would be wise for all birds to leave for their winter home immediately since the young are already excellent fliers while sending messages to humans in their efforts to save the trees. The parent birds who had lost their first hatching due to fragile shells from crop pesticides were told to tell their young to hitch brief rides from larger birds. Even swans and geese have been seen accepting smaller birds on their backs.

We may not hear from Ole and his helpers again until they return in the spring to their summer home for another nesting season. We hope their tree homes will still be there.