The Bird Party
It’s something that you don’t see every day.
Again, you might find this a little selfish of me. But, it’s a funny story.
First, I love animals. That’s all animals, although I’m more of a cat lady. Currently, I don’t have any cats. The last one died almost 10 years ago. Since I moved out of my parents’ home, I had no money to get another cat.
However, this story isn’t about cats. It’s about another species of animal cats like to chase and eat — birds.
After I moved back in with my mother in the Fall of 2020, instead of composting leftover uneaten meat, she threw it in the backyard for the birds to eat. Most often, magpies take it.
My neighbor’s backyard has a bush where chickadees perch throughout the year. They also prefer perching on my neighbor’s patio chairs and table, which are next to the bush.
Like always, the robins come here to nest in the summer.
In 2021, blackbirds also visited my neighborhood. This is the first time that I have ever seen a blackbird. Their wings were a bit red.
My mother also leaves out meat for robins and blackbirds, but no seeds for chickadees. They are the only wild animals she doesn’t feed. She has peanuts for the squirrels who come around.
By the way, we live in the suburbs. My mother has wide and large windows in her kitchen. So while we are eating inside, we can both see the wildlife outside. On one occasion last year, I saw a squirrel eating nuts on top of a fence outside facing me while I ate dinner indoors. It was like having an unexpected guest join me.
One summer day, last year, I noticed something very strange. On our backyard patio table and chairs, chickadees, robins, blackbirds, and I don’t know what other birds were having their own little get-together. Our table and chairs were all occupied, and they were chirping away as if they were having their own meeting.
As soon as I saw what was happening, I told my mother. She then ran outside to chase all of them away. It’s obvious that she hates cleaning up bird droppings.
The funniest and strangest thing about this scenario was that instead of all of them flying away separately, they all flew to my next-door neighbor’s patio to continue on with their party. I just couldn’t get this image out of my head. Of course, I laughed. Have you ever seen birds of different species interacting with each other?
Today, I only see the robins that have returned and not the blackbirds. And we had a new neighbor who moved in a few months ago. There’s at least one chickadee (a big male who might be the leader), who loves to perch on top of the new guy’s patio chair again and again near that bush.