My Little Bird Family
Posted by Ted Hopton on June 20, 2008
I’m settling into my new house, which is a cottage at the top of a hill on a horse farm with gorgeous views and a seemingly endless cool breeze. And I am getting to know my closest neighbors, a bird family with a nest in the wall just outside my patio doors. The little ones cheep-cheep constantly, almost like a chorus of crickets. The parents fly to and fro with insects or grubs or whatever it is they are catching to feed the chicks.
Mother or father will land on the deck railing, eyeball me through the doorway, then swoop into the knot hole in the side of my house to feed their young. They will also regale me with a song now and then, too.
A farm is quite a busy place for nature. I don’t have any pets, so I must say I enjoy my little bird family neighbors. I’m growing rather fond of their company. I’m afraid the feeling is not mutual, however. The parents scold me when I deign to sit on my back deck, only a few feet from their precious, always-hungry little ones. But they still fly up to feed the wide-open mouths that stick out of their home even when I am sitting nearby — and then they dance about chirping sharply at me and fly off to a nearby tree where they hope I will follow, away from their nest.
Maybe they will get used to me? We’ll see.
