A Toehold on Life
After reading "Last Song for Migrating Birds" in the July 2013 issue of National Geographic, with outstanding, heart-wrenching photos by David Guttenfelder, I felt a need to express the plight of these songbirds around the Mediterranean. They are being killed for "food, profit, and cruel amusement". Consequently, I joined CABS or Committee Against Bird Slaughter and begged for reference photos. They obliged. I painted this white throat stuck on a lime stick "trap" showing the feathers of countless previous birds caught on the same trap and suffering the same senseless pain and long-coming death as many others. I still support CABS, and they still continue to monitor illegal trapping and poaching in Malta, Sicily, Italy, Cyprus, Egypt, Albania, and other places where not only songbirds but raptors, buzzards and ducksĀ are hunted during their migrationĀ to and fro across the Mediterranean. When they are most vulnerable.