4 A
❘
SATURDAY EDITION
❘ JUNE 10, 2017
Siuslaw News
P.O. Box 10
Florence, OR 97439
NED HICKSON , EDITOR
Opinion
❘ 541-902-3520 ❘
NHICKSON @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM
The First Amendment
C
ongress shall make no law respecting an estab-
lishment of religion or prohibiting the free exer-
cise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of
the press, or the right of the people peaceably to
assemble, and to petition the Government for a
redress of grievances.
VIEW FROM UPRIVER
Sitting in the catbird seat
W ESLEY V OTH
For the Siuslaw News
ony — such as in the bayous of Louisiana or
along the Gulf shore wetlands. And although
many individual birds sang quite beautifully,
there wasn’t that musical chorus heard
throughout the northwest that I so treasure; a
sound anchored by such species as the winter
wren, Swainson’s thrush and western mead-
owlark.
Ithaca is home to Cornell University, the
country’s premier place in the world of bird
study. Their Lab of Ornithology has the best
facility devoted to birds and biodiversity, and
especially the recording of birdsong and ani-
mal sound. If you love birds like I do, and ever
have the chance to visit their large bird-friend-
ly Sapsucker Woods Sanctuary in the spring or
early summer when birdsong is at its most
wondrous, do so.
I have mentioned here before that their web-
site is very useful in identifying birds by
appearance, but also by their songs and calls
and other sounds.
Two experiences visiting Sapsucker Woods
have stuck in my mind as we’ve traveled on:
the sound of a frog new to me, and experienc-
ing a particularly splendid catbird performance.
One type of bird not well distributed in our
part of the country is the mimic, such as mock-
ingbirds, brown thrashers and catbirds. When I
W
e are back in the northern part of the
country, leaving southern summer
behind and finding spring again.
When we first reached Ithaca, N.Y., at the end
of May where one of our daughters lives,
maple trees were just blooming — the same
stage of spring as Mapleton in mid-April
This daughter is one whose dog, Olive, we
cared for for a while, and who we now got to
see again. When we arrived, Olive remem-
bered us with great excitement and emotion,
crying loudly in remembrance. One of the
things I love about that dog is her custom of
watching out the window for hours each day,
tracking the birds, rabbits and squirrels visually
and expressing various growls and barks to let
me know.
We are also back to an area of the country
that has both a morning and evening chorus of
birdsong. In other places, there was plenty of
animal sound — sometimes in quite a cacoph-
was growing up, my grandparents’ house next
door had a window seat that was referred to as
the “catbird seat.” The name had little meaning
for me as I did not know what a catbird was.
There was room for only one person there,
and it had a wonderful view out a large win-
dow toward the garden; by closing the curtain
you could be in this wondrous little space that
was almost like being outside.
As I walked along a trail through the bird
sanctuary, I heard a bird that was an especially
gifted mimic. Mockingbirds are well named
because their songs often sound like a sarcasti-
cally sped up or taunting version of the origi-
nals. While I admit some I’ve heard are slower
and more lyrical — several in Joshua Tree
were quite lovely — mostly it sounds like they
rip through as many successive calls as possi-
ble without pause.
This bird in Sapsucker Woods was different,
and I kept creeping closer, trying to get a look
at the singer through dense foliage. For 20 or
more minutes, this bird carefully sang songs
both familiar to me and strange, with slight
pauses between. All had the same careful love-
liness as the originals — the exquisite wood
thrush, red-winged blackbird, song sparrow,
northern cardinal, Veery and the frog I had
heard nearby but didn’t know — which sound-
ed like a dropped microphone rolling down
steps.
Finally I could see the artist, a gray catbird.
But just when my eye met its eye, it was gone.
Where it had chosen to sit for the performance
was a secretive little bower; two intertwined
vines formed a little “seat” surrounded by a
small canopy of leaves. I wondered if this
perch was just found, or if leaves had been
removed to form it. On closer inspection, it
looked like the latter — maybe catbirds in part
— create these little performance venues.
Hence the idiom.
I asked in the gift store about the frog I
heard, and was given a species name. Later,
listening to sound recordings, I discovered this
to be wrong. The frog that makes that sound is
the uninterestingly named “green” frog, but its
name is the only boring thing about it. I am sit-
ting watching about 10 of them from a catbird
seat in a country home of relatives.
Here in Climax, Mich., I can write and
observe simultaneously, like I can from my
office window at home. I can see a garden
pond where green frogs leap two feet into the
air to catch bumblebees and other insect visi-
tors to the colorful peonies.
Out across the cornfield, two greater sandhill
cranes stride steadily while their small scam-
pering chick, barely taller than the corn, feeds
alongside. I read on the Cornell site that these
chicks increase their weight exponentially 20
percent per day. Their clacking calls sound pre-
historic, and I wonder if somewhere a catbird
is listening like I am, thinking about how it
might — from its perfect seat — make a sound
that true and pure.
taking home about $10 an hour.
One thing the person receiving care and the
caregiver both need and expect is respect.
I remember one of my first assignments was to
provide care for a man who did not have long to
live. He was sitting on the edge of his bed when
I walked in and said, “How are you today?”
I immediately knew I had stuck my foot in my
mouth.
What an insensitive thing to say.
However, thanks to our shared patience and
mutual respect, we eventually became good
friends.
Every situation and person is different. But
with patience and a big heart, great things can
happen as both parties learn and take care of each
other.
With the help of many caregivers in Florence,
we have started the Florence Caregiving
Community, offering support to caregivers, those
persons receiving care and their families.
Monthly meetings are held on the second
Tuesday of each month, beginning at 5:30 p.m.,
at the Shorewood.
I wrote this article to start a conversation; let
me hear from you. Join us at our meeting.
— Steve Benson
Florence Caregiving Community
Understanding the
options of caregiving
GUEST VIEWPOINT
B Y S TEVE B ENSON
F LORENCE C AREGIVING C OMMUNITY
According to Wikipedia, a caregiver is an
unpaid or paid person who helps another individ-
ual suffering from an impairment to his or her
activities of daily living.
Any person with a health impairment might
use caregiving services to address their difficul-
ties. Caregiving is most commonly used to
address impairments related to old age, disabili-
ty, a disease or a mental disorder.
In other countries, caregiving is defined differ-
ently. In many cases, it means families sticking
together over generations, living together and
supporting each other through shared resources;
the very old taking care of the very young while
the young adults earn a living.
Not too long ago, caregivers were paid the
same as migrant workers. Meaning very low
wage and no overtime.
As our culture has become more progressive
and enlightened, so has the attitudes and laws
protecting this very valuable and limited
resource.
People who become caregivers do it for many
reasons and require patience and a willingness to
learn.
Caregiving is becoming more accepted as a
career and the laws that protect caregivers are
becoming more mainstream. In some situations,
caregivers are offered health insurance, paid
vacations and other incentives.
We have all seen the ads on TV. People want
to keep their loved ones at home as long as pos-
sible.
USPS# 497-660
But far too often there
is the lone spouse doing
everything he or she can
to avoid losing their
loved one to an institution
or because they can’t
afford one; we all know
someone in some sort of
caregiving situation.
The 500-pound gorilla
in the room is pay. In
some cases, long term
private insurance can pay
some but rarely 100 per-
cent of wages. If you
have a state certified
caregiver, he or she is
receiving around $15 an
hour plus health insur-
ance, which is good for them.
A caregiver working for a company, however,
will generally get the lowest pay and gets no
health insurance. The hourly charge to the
employer (the person receiving the care) is the
highest. They are usually backed up with an RN
and liability insurance.
Both types have had a background check.
Private pay caregivers are usually referred by
someone you trust. They will ask for a high wage
because they have to pay for their own health
insurance and their own taxes and social securi-
ty. Also, there is a self-employment tax.
A private pay caregiver making $20 an hour is
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