Over the years I have filed a number of posts regarding Perry Phillips Lake, a city park in southeast Columbia, Missouri. Once a farm lake surrounded by a pleasing mix of grasslands, marsh and woodlands, the local ecosystem has been steadily eroded by "human development." Initially confined to the area east of the lake, the construction of homes, apartments and commercial buildings has been spreading along its southern shore as well, leaving a narrow greenbelt between the structures and the lake.
Officially a regional birding "hotspot," the park has become less appealing in recent years as a parade of joggers and dog walkers move along the loop trail and the natural vistas become suburbanized. In concert, birding has become "less productive" though sightings are, like anywhere, highly variable. On this cloudy, chilly afternoon, I encountered an adult bald eagle, an osprey, an American kestrel and a decent mix of waterfowl; eastern meadowlarks and northern mockingbirds are always fairly common at the Park, joined by eastern kingbirds and a large number and variety of swallows during the warmer months.
Unfortunately, another sighting also caught my attention today; a low, black plastic fence now surrounds the grassland west of the lake, designed to prevent runoff as new construction begins. In effect, the Park is a microcosm of Earth; natural habitat is continually destroyed by human agriculture, commerce, housing and recreation. Our unbridled population growth is decimating the natural diversity of our planet, altering the climate and threatening the welfare of all species, including our own.
