Gettysburg National Battlefield makes for a great grasslands birding adventure and I wasted no time in heading over there when Sunday morning dawned cool, sunny, and full of the dawn songs of birds. I parked near the Railroad Cut and walked a meandering loop of several miles. It's been rough lately for so many of us and I was thankful for this opportunity to re-ground. The wind coursing over the wheat fields seemed to roll out like the waves of sadness I've felt these past many weeks, especially for those who suffer the indignities of racism while doing what they love - be it birding, hiking, or enjoying nature. I stood in the middle of a battlefield where so much blood was spilled fighting for the ideals of our democracy to unite us as one nation with protections and rights for all. The Battle at Gettysburg was in 1863. Yet, here we are still fighting, still spilling blood, still suffering.
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| Beardtongue in Herbst Woods |
I ducked behind a monument that marked where Major Reynolds fell and discovered a hidden trail into Herbst Woods. A Yellow-Billed Cuckoo called from the oak-hickory forest and I had to find him. He led me by song down the trail to a glade of sunshine and leafy shadow and I found him perched on a thick arm of old hickory just above the trail. The little camera I use when walking and hiking was basically useless as I fumbled for a decent picture. I gave up trying and instead enjoyed a full ten minutes of his kawlping interspersed with tropical clucks and chucks. His bright sunlit yellow bill stood out against a dark background of shadow.
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| Looking west towards the Appalachians. |
I emerged from the woods for a full-on view of managed agricultural fields and native grasslands laid like a vast quilt across the battlefield where Union and Confederate cavalry and infantry clashed. The fields were full of Blue Grosbeaks, Song Sparrows, Robins, Mockingbirds, Catbirds, Bluebirds, and Red-Winged Blackbirds competing to be heard. I listened to the whole of as one would to a symphony, the songs of each species blending with others, cohesive and intentional, together.
An American Crow perched on the head of a statue was harassed into flight by an Eastern Kingbird who was much smaller but very persistent. Other meadow and field birds joined in the chase and drove it away. Red-Winged Blackbirds kept diving at its back while a very brave little Carolina Wren took direct shots at its beak. This is the season for crow raids upon nests for eggs and hatchlings to feed their own young. Birds of open grasslands are particularly observant for crows and do not tolerate their presence. Once an alarm has been raised, mobbing by many species can follow. Mobbing is experienced by owls, hawks, and nest-seeking snakes.
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| Blue Grosbeak lays low as Crow is chased away. |
Gettysburg National Battlefield is a gem for grassland conservation and is recognized as a Pennsylvania IBA (Important Bird Area). Grasslands are one of the most critically endangered types of habitat on the planet because they are so easily converted into agricultural use and thus vulnerable to large-scale clearing, burning, and cultivation. National Parks, particularly battlefields, have become models of grassland preservation. In winter there are Short-Eared Owls and Harriers and sometimes Snowy Owls. In spring and summer there a growing numbers of nesting grassland species like Bobolink, Dickcissel, Eastern Meadowlark, Indigo Buntings, and Blue Grosbeak. I like to visit over many seasons to observe these species and notice how the grasslands change from winter through fall.
The biological and historical staff at Gettysburg work together to reconstruct what would have been the type of mosaic landscape mixed pattern of wild and agricultural use of 1863. It's a big change from how this park was managed not so long ago. Up until the early 1990s, large swaths of battlefield were simply mowed as one huge lawn, most accommodating to reenactments and events. Now the park manages smaller leased ag fields while restoring native grasslands to accommodate native species that depend on integrated and continuous habitat. To me this is extraordinary space where everything visible is a living tapestry of plant, animal, bird, insect, and soil. To sit on the edge of a wild grassland is a balm for weary souls.
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| Eastern Wood Peewee in a Witness Tree |
I worked the edges from the trail's end to the International Peace Memorial to see the interaction of grasslands with species of the open woods. There are a few Witness Trees here, that were living during the harrowing days of battle. I was lucky enough to photograph an Eastern Wood Peewee using a witness tree near the Reynolds monument as a perch for his insect-catching forays over milkweed and scrub cherry. (See Notes for Witness Tree map). A Red-Tailed Hawk perched in an oak and watched for rabbits, young woodchucks, and rodents. A Cooper's Hawk rocketed from a walnut and snagged a Robin in a fury of feathers. Song Sparrows flitted between perches in young trees then dropped down into patches of thick meadow to disappear inside. A Red-Headed Woodpecker probed a hickory tree and taunted me for a good picture which I was unable to get. I miss my long lens and good camera! Must. Get. Fixed.
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| Red-Headed Woodpecker - terrible picture, sorry. |
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| Song Sparrow |
I love watching interactions between bird species. A Turkey Vulture and Red-Winged Blackbird provided continuous caption-worthy scenes. The vulture was picking over some hidden remains and was happily minding his own business when a rather annoyed Red-Winged Blackbird flew at him, around him, diving and fluttering. This went on for a while. The vulture watched the performance with mild interest. The blackbird kept it up until, in a long, leisurely about-face, the vulture simply turned away and went back to picking. Somewhat put off, the blackbird left - all that energy wasted on the unimpressed vulture.
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| About face, by-bye blackbird. |
Birds teach us things about life and living. Birding on the battlefield teaches us things about history. The Civil War ended in 1865 and to many folks this was the end of all things to do with slavery. But this battle were only the beginning of a long corrective journey that we are still on. My experience with birds has been been mostly of exhilaration, to be amazed by the variety and adaptations, songs and colors, shapes and sizes and the fact that they fly. The Vulture's story, however, is one that stays with me on this battlefield and reminds us all that the Confederacy should have died here. When the great three days' battle ended hundreds of vultures and all manner of feathered scavengers descended on the fields and meadows to pick the carcasses of horses and men, giving no preference for Confederate butternut or Union grey, man or beast. The citizens of Gettysburg came out into these fields to identify who they could, notify the families, and bury the dead. As families came north or south to claim the fallen, these same citizens accompanied the grieving to their resting places and, if needed, help them to disinter and load the bodies for long trips by rail or wagon to distant church yards or family cemeteries. Even months and years later local people were there to help the grieving find and send their dead home.
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| Monument of a cannon ball shattered tree with a nest of hope. |
As these same citizens would write and tell decades after the battle the Civil War, however, didn't end here. Nor did it result in an end racial disparity, inequality, and violence. Next came a failed Reconstruction. The KKK, made up of former Confederate soldiers, formed to intimidate Black voters and those Black Americans who had finally - and legally - entered public office and positions of power. In response to Black Americans threatening the status quo of White Americans, came Jim Crow laws that forced "separate but equal" mandates. The Civil Rights Movement pushed back. And now a new generation of young Americans demonstrate against police brutality, racial disparities, and injustice. The grueling and morbid work of the citizens of Gettysburg to clean up after the battle did little to wash away the enduring stains of the war and we still grapple with this truth today.
Rebecca Solnit writes in her most recent essay:
We never cleaned up after the civil war, never made it anathema, as the Germans have since the second world war, to support the losing side. We never had a truth and reconciliation process like South Africa did. We’ve allowed statues to go up across the country glorifying the traitors and losers, treated the pro-slavery flag as sentimental, fun, Dukes of Hazzard, white identity politics. A retired general, Stanley McChrystal, just wrote a piece about throwing out his portrait of Robert E Lee that he’d had for 40 years, and why a US soldier should celebrate the leader of a war against that country says everything about the distortion of meaning and memory here.
Somewhere southeast of here on Seminary Ridge is an out-sized equestrian monument of Robert E. Lee that dominates the western edge of the site final day's battle. This kind of glorification of the loser gave justification to The Lost Cause, a movement which resulted in many of these battlefield monuments to the Confederate State that framed the South as possessing certain principles of character, even saintliness. Retired Army General Stanley McChrystal, who wrote the essay referenced in Solnit's piece framed it this way,
More than anyone, it was Lee the patrician hero, Lee the principled Southern patriot, and Lee the stoic warrior (rather than Lee the slaveholder, Lee the rebel, or Lee who had lost the Civil War) who fit the model in character and persona. Long after his death, he became the icon of the movement.
Gettysburg Battlefield holds more than stories of the battle. It holds the difficult ground that lies ahead.
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| Turkey Vulture picks an old carcass on the battlefield. |
There are monuments everywhere. Some glorify the courageous presence and actions of combatants. Some are simple tablets or stones marking positions of regiments or lines of fire. As I rounded a bend in a hike up a short access road from the railroad I discovered a monument with a different message.
The Granite Tree, erected in 1888, used the symbolism of birds and a witness tree to convey a message of hope. Union survivor veteran Hillary Beyer explained to the crowd that had gathered at the dedication of the monument,
"The tablet on this monument tells you and future generations the number of men lost on this spot July 1st, 1863. The dove (the emblem of peace) perched on the edge of its nest, proclaims the sentiment of brave and true men who fought right here. The gun and knapsack attached to the tree proclaim to all that the war is over.” *
Except that the war wasn't over. Vultures are still feeding on the bones of racism and discrimination in this country and nobody can or should glorify that. Still, the Granite Tree and its bronze dove and nestlings does offer a sense of hope, though this morning it was the wind that washed sadness from me as I listened for species home once again on these hallowed fields.
Notes:
Finding the Witness Trees at Gettysburg. I was birding on the edge of woods and grasslands in the #15 - 17 tree area on this map, then moved north above Chambersburg Pike for grassland-only birding. https://www.civilwarcycling.com/index/gettysburg-witness-trees/#:~:text=Definition,turn%20green%20due%20to%20oxidation).
Rebecca Solnit's full essay, "The American Civil War Didn't End," http://rebeccasolnit.net/essay/the-american-civil-war-didnt-end/
"I Threw Away my Prized Portrait of Robert E. Lee," Stanley McChrystal, from The Atlantic, Oct. 23, 2018: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/why-i-threw-away-my-portrait-robert-e-lee/573631/
The Lost Cause
* Excerpted from the Survivors Association, Gettysburg, 1888-1890. Complied by A.J. Sellers. See digitized regimental histories, State Library of Pennsylvania:
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