~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tracking God News Looking for character and personality of God in His creation. Issue # 6 Editor: Ron McCluskey mailto:editor@trackinggod.com

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You are receiving this ezine because you or someone else God is a Faithful Guide - Migration ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When I was in grade school, our family lived in Tulelake, California. The lake, along with other lakes in Klamath Basin, was one of major stopping points for water fowl that were migrating. It was a magnificent site to be able to see hundreds of thousands of snow geese flying so thick that they looked like a large flying snow bank.

Something that has always been a mystery to scientists is how these birds know when to leave their current habitat and fly long distances to find a better habitat for upcoming change in weather. It is also a mystery how they get where they are going. While scientists have started to find out how adults follow pattern by following other adults that have been there before, they have not even started to find out how some birds know where to go.

In 'The Shorebirds of North America' R.S. Palmer tells how adults of many shorebirds will fly south before young are ready to go. The young will then fly south when they are ready. They will end up in same area as adults. Scientists have no explanation of this at all!

I wish you could have all been along that afternoon in southern Mexico. It was a beautiful day and there is nothing better than a good lunch and then a nature hike after church.

My wife and I were in middle of a year of volunteer work in Villahermosa, Tabasco, Mexico. We had driven an old Chevy Nova down there, so we were able to occasionally get away. We had found some other young 'gringos' up in mountains of Chiapas and spent most of our available weekends with them.

This time, we went with them to a church that they had helped to build. It was in a very pretty mountain valley. It seated about 300 people and was a great new addition to local ministry. While they had been there with building project, they had found this place to hike and wanted to show it to us.

We parked at end of a road and started off over a flat area. Being nosy naturalist that I am, I soon found a flat rock to turn over. Under it was a mother scorpion with a back full of tiny babies. She looked like a little wind-up toy. She scuttled around looking for cover.

Soon we came to edge of a deep ravine. At one end of ravine was a waterfall. There was about a quarter mile where river ran fairly level and then went over another waterfall. It was a perfect place to explore.

On steep climb down ravine, it was amazing to see that this side of steep bank was actually a farm. It was so steep that if you stood straight up, you could almost touch ground just by stretching out your hand. But, hard working farmers had cleared it and had planted corn there.

When we got to river, it was plain to see that good exploring was on other side of river. There was a place where there was a rock about six feet tall. At base of rock, river was pressed into a narrow channel. At that point we were able to jump across.

On other side, there was a large flat bedrock area. On edge of it other side of ravine was a steep cliff. It was covered with trees, moss and ferns. In trees and rocks were orchids and bromeliads. It was an amazing place.