THE BIRDS
I got cussed out the other day. Ok, maybe I don’t understand the language but I sure understood the tone of voice I heard and the pointed looks I received. Trust me! I know when I’m being cussed out.
Of course, the cuss-er was a bird and maybe, just maybe, had a valid reason to be upset. Then again, it is MY HOUSE so who does that bird think she is to cuss me out!?
You ask how I know it was a “she”? Well, it’s a little bit of a story.
I began feeding birds a few years ago. I didn’t know then that once you begin feeding birds, you are obligated to feed them for the rest of their natural lives and yours. And I am here to tell you, they don’t leave home like children do.
Birds don’t want to move out into their own place. Birds don’t want to go to college or get a job. And when birds mate, they don’t go get their own place; they move the entire clan to your place. Nope, when birds find a sucker to put out bird food, they feel they are set for life.
It is so bad that if I neglect to faithfully keep the feeder filled in early spring, birds line up on the porch rail chirping and griping – and all facing the big picture window to my house. Don’t tell me they aren’t talking to me about the empty feeders. I know they are and you can’t convince me otherwise. They never do that when the feeders are kept full.
And then there is the Christmas bird. I call him that because he moved in around Christmas time. I put out a wreath with little snowmen on it by the door. He decided that was a great place, so he began sleeping within the center of the wreath.
I wasn’t sure at first what was going on. I only knew that when I would go out the door to leave the house, there would be a great flapping noise and a bird would shoot out of the wreath. I asked hubby if he noticed and he told me the bird had taken up residence in the wreath. Not to have babies, mind you. Just to live.
It is June. He is still living in the wreath. I don’t know why he is living there but I haven’t got the heart to take the wreath down. There is something nice - albeit warped – about having a bird living in my Christmas wreath… in June.
So back to my cussing she-bird. I was minding my own business and decided to water the plants on the front porch. I have wave petunias and ferns. I watered the petunias first and then poured water into the fern. A great noise erupted and out flew this bird. She took up residence on a tree limb not far from the porch and began threatening me.
Have you ever heard a bird threaten you? It is the weirdest sound but YOU KNOW it is a threat. It isn’t a chirp and it isn’t a tweet. It is a low, long growling-type noise. That she-bird noise puts chills up and down your spine. I do understand – I mean, it’s how I’d sound if anyone threatened my son but still! It brings to mind that old movie, “The Birds” by Alfred Hitchcock. I always hated congregating birds after that move. They make me very suspicious.
I may be slow but I finally figured out she had a nest in the fern and I’d poured water on her. I apologized to her but then she flew across the street and threatened louder.
So now I have this dilemma in my life. I need to water the fern but I don’t want to mess up the nest. I sure don’t want to be threatened by the mama bird or drive her to attacking me! When I go out to water the petunias, she flies away now before I get to the fern but takes up that threatening stance on the forsythia bush limbs, fussing and cussing me.
And then there are the blue jays and the squirrels or even the hummingbirds that all put on a very entertaining show. But that’s another story for a different Ramble.
Follow your JOY! And don’t start feeding birds unless you are in it for the long haul! www.joy-cafe.com
