Nature in the City

Must we leave the city to find nature? Those who wander the city with eyes and ears open know that you don’t. They know the city is full of nature; that it has a wonderful diversity of plants and animals. (As in all my writing, here “nature,” small n, refers to that which is opposite human-made; “Nature,” capital N, to everything that arises from natural law). 

In this article, I will focus only on animals, particularly birds and mammals. I could, however, as easily focus on plants. I could take you out and show you a hundred species of flowers and ferns growing wild throughout the city. I could also show you a few score plants growing in people’s gardens. You would be hard pressed to find a similar diversity of plants in a comparable area in a rural part of my state (Minnesota). 

Among the animals, I will start with the old masters of urban living, those that can be found in most American cities. These include squirrels, cottontails, pigeons, English sparrows, robins, grackles, starlings, rats and mice. and of course cats and dogs, who have so mastered urban life that in some cases they have turned humans into their servants. 

I particularly marvel at gray squirrels, who, if anything, seem better adapted to urban life than people. Their brain is the size of an acorn, yet they are capable of solving sophisticated “squirrel proof” bird feeders; remembering where they hid dozens of acorns; and are arboreal acrobats, masters of the trees. At least where I live (St. Paul), they come in black, gray and white – a diversity that matches other aspects of the city.

Although not quite as well established as the old masters, a second tier of animals I often see in the city include nuthatches, chickadees, mourning doves, orioles, swifts, and a variety of woodpeckers; on the lakes and rivers, a few different duck varieties, Canada geese, great blue herons and egrets, gulls, muskrats and an occasional mink; and throughout the city an abundance of crows. 

The crows are already adept at urban living, but when I first moved to the city more than 50 years ago, I rarely saw them in the center city. I’ve witnessed many crow adaptations to the human world. Perhaps the strangest one is that two or more crows will antagonize a rabbit and try to get it to chase them across the road in the hope that it will get hit by a car, thus providing a meal. Such is urban life!

Other species that I have observed move into the city during that time include kestrels, peregrine falcons, coopers and sharp-shinned hawks, raccoons, coyotes, red squirrels, and chipmunks. The chipmunks currently seem poorly adapted to city life, but I figure in 20-30 years, like the gray squirrels, they will have evolved a degree of mastery. 

Three other species I now see quite often are bald eagles, wild turkeys, and trumpeter swans. When I first came to the city, these were non-existent there and quite rare in the countryside. The return of the eagles is largely due to the banning of DDT and the Clean Water Act of 1972. The eagles are now quite common along the Mississippi River. The return of Trumpeter Swans can largely be credited to an individual named Bob Burwell, who initiated efforts that ultimately resulted in the birds becoming a fairly common sighting on area lakes and rivers. I’m not sure what is responsible for the abundance of wild turkeys in the area. For a long time I only saw them in the vicinity of wooded lands. Recently, though, I’ve been seeing them throughout the city. It’s a bit unsettling to have such large birds sitting on your doorstep.

There are other species I could name, and during the spring and fall migrations the list swells. But I think this is enough to demonstrate that for anyone paying attention, there is plenty of wildlife to see in the city.

“Paying attention” is the key phrase here. And that is the point of this article. To be mindful of our immediate environment is one aspect of mindfulness.(1) It is probably not as easy to remain mindful while wondering about the city as it would be in some wilderness park. The city is filled with distractions and potential dangers. But if you live in a city, it’s worth trying.

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Notes:
1. For more on this, see the article Mindfulness and Environment.