Ptica, ki so jo dvakrat imeli za izgubljeno

Globoko na vzhodu otoka je Polly sledila drevesni meji navzgor v gozd, kakršnega na obali ni bilo nikjer: zapleteni stari lovorovci, ovešeni z mahom, s tako gostimi krošnjami, da je do tal prišlo le malo sonca. Ta hladen, vlažen gozd okoli vrha Pico da Vara je zadnje zatočišče majhne sive in rožnate ptice, ki je ni nikjer drugje na planetu, priola, in Polly je prišla pogledat, ali ga bo našla.

Deep in the east of the island, Polly followed the tree line up into a forest unlike anything on the coast, tangled old laurel trees draped in moss, their canopy so thick that little sunlight reached the ground. This cool, damp forest around Pico da Vara is the last stronghold of a small grey and pink bird found nowhere else on the planet, the priolo, and Polly had come to see if she could find one.

Ptica je dvakrat skoraj izginila. Opažanja so povsem prenehala leta tisoč devetsto dvaintrideset in več kot trideset let je večina ljudi mislila, da je za vedno izgubljena, dokler leta tisoč devetsto sedeminšestdeset niso znova odkrili majhne populacije, skrite prav v takšnem gozdu. Tudi po tem sta kmetijstvo in hitro rastoča tuja drevesa krčila njen dom, dokler ni ostalo manj kot sto gnezdečih parov, zaradi česar po večini štetij velja za drugo najredkejšo pevko v vsej Evropi.

The bird very nearly disappeared twice. Sightings stopped completely in nineteen thirty-two, and for more than thirty years most people assumed it was gone for good, until a small population was rediscovered in nineteen sixty-seven, hiding in exactly this kind of forest. Even after that, farming and fast-growing foreign trees kept shrinking its home until fewer than one hundred breeding pairs remained, making it, by most counts, the second rarest songbird anywhere in Europe.

Priola je rešilo potrpežljivo, neblesteče delo. Prostovoljci in znanstveniki so desetletja puljili tuja drevesa in znova sadili počasni domači lovor, od katerega je ptica zares odvisna za hrano in zavetje. Polly je videla, kako sta se dva dvignila z nizke veje, mehak blisk rožnatih prsi proti temno zelenemu ozadju, in se kratko, tiho klicala, preden sta spet izginila v krošnje.

What saved the priolo was patient, unglamorous work. Volunteers and scientists spent decades pulling out foreign trees and replanting the slow native laurel the bird actually depends on for food and shelter. Polly watched two of them lift off from a low branch, a soft flash of pink breast against the dark green, calling back and forth in short, low notes before disappearing back into the canopy.

Dolgo je čakala v tišini in upala na še en pogled, a se je gozd nad pticama zaprl tako popolnoma, kot da ju nikoli ne bi bilo. To se ji je zdela poštena menjava, je pomislila Polly: malo tišine v zameno za vrsto, ki še vztraja.

She waited a long while in the quiet, hoping for one more look, but the forest closed back over the birds as completely as if they had never been there. It felt like a fair trade, Polly thought: a small silence, in exchange for a species still holding on.