I awoke this morning in the pre-dawn darkness.  I wasn’t ready to get up, but I was done sleeping.  I began counting birds in my mind.  I have been surprised that there are so few species of birds in Vanuatu.  I expected that this South Seas paradise would be teeming with all sorts of wildlife.  However, these islands are relatively young, geologically speaking, so not much wildlife has found its way here.

There are no native mammals except bats.  The only other mammals on this island all came with man—cows, pigs, dogs, cats, rats, mice, horses, sheep, and goats.  There are no wild animals in the bush except domesticated animals that have escaped.

There are skinks, lizards, and geckoes everywhere, but not many separate species.  There is at least one species of snake.  I’ve seen the snake, and it looks harmless.  Insect species are a little more numerous, but not as numerous as in the United States.  I’ve been collecting insects in a jar in the freezer, though I probably won’t be able to bring the collection home to my grandkids or to Mrs. Defrees, the biology teacher, because customs will frown upon it.

Birds have fared a little better than the mammals.  Having flight as their means of locomotion, they were presumably able to cross the waters, and to populate the islands.  I presume that their ancestors were perhaps blown here by the winds.  The proliferation of birds here in Vanuatu has had another impediment in the form of man.  A girl on Ambae Island made the comment that “We don’t have birds on Ambae.  We ate them all.”

As I lay in bed counting the birds on Santo, I identified 13 species that I’ve seen, and one more that I heard and was unable to locate in the dense foliage.  That’s not many.  How does that compare with the number of species back home, I wondered?

I began ticking them off by name on my fingers.  Without a bit of hesitation I got all the way to 30.  With stops and starts I made it clear up to 50, and could have possibly kept going.  I’m amazed.  I did the same with wild mammals in my home neighborhood.  I got up to 25 before I bogged down.

I’m missing my Oregon paradise.