Why do we say that trivial, worthless things are for the birds? Sounds like a lot of horseshit to me. And that’s sort of where it comes from. Some etymologists attribute the phrase to the shit left in the street from horse-drawn carriages, fit only for birds to peck at1. Others find its origins in the Bible.2
Well, call me trivial; I’m for the birds. I like to sit outside in the mornings with my coffee and Merlin, trying to spot the birds it hears, especially the piliated woodpecker that lives around here, the goldfinches that are finicky about staying where there’s nothing good to eat, the sweet dark-eyed juncos, and the elusive red-eyed vireos. One morning, I heard more than a dozen different birds, though I feel certain about six of them were a single mockingbird!
The birds start fucking in the late winter, and by May, most of the nests are built. We have at least three grackle nests in the white pine; they’re so high up that we’re amazed when babies survive the fall, as one did just yesterday.
We collect the nests that have fallen from our trees and leave them on a countertop under the porch, mostly because they’re cool constructions but also for times like these. Marty set a baby grackle in a mud-packed nest on a table outside under a tree away from where it fell. I moved the table out into the open, where no foliage could hide the baby, and I started calling to each grackle that landed on the electric line above the garage. “Grackle! Grackle! Look!”
Yeah, I talk to birds and bugs; it doesn’t matter if they can understand me. My tone indicates that I’m friend, not foe, and they’ll usually respond. I pointed wildly at the baby in the mud nest, and then I walked away. Within minutes, Mama or Daddy Grackle was there with a bug, and I watched grackles come and go all day.
This is the third baby that has fallen. One had landed in the alley and was flattened by a tire by the time we noticed the large pile of flies in the shape of a squashed bird. Another was captured by the neighbor’s cat, and the neighbor rescued it.
We were worried about how it would survive the night, which has been a little chilly and happens to be full of wildlife that would find it snackworthy, but when I woke up this morning and looked out my bedroom window, an adult was already feeding the little one.
I came across this cute blog post that’s for the birders.
ohmygosh, that baby
Would that I could join you!