I observed something very unusual as I was sipping my morning coffee - two birds at play. Or were they? At first, Darcy and I thought that we were first-hand witnesses to a mating ritual. That is, until Darcy, overflowing with knowledge from her ornithology class, noticed that the wing pattern was the same on both birds and so deduced that one was probably defending his territory from the other. So for a good, oh, five minutes, we sat and watched the two birds face off, darting this way and that. I could just hear them saying "You goin' that way? I don't think so!" and "You are NOT gonna get my woman!" etc. etc. In the end, one started backing away, all the while staring the other one down...and just when we thought he would hop back up into his bush, BOTH ran away in opposite directions!
This begs the question - what in the world were they fighting for? Not territory, not a female bird - just for the sake of staring each other down. Men.
"If we get close enough, we can look at the eye ring (that's a distinguishing feature) [...] You know, ornithology is a valid hobby [...] it's not weird, or cheesy. I mean, there's a lot of birds out there. And I don't know about you, but I'm curious to see what kind of bird is out here. [paraphrasing] - What if, because of global warming, it's a bird that was pushed up from the Bermuda Triangle or some other interesting place? - [...] Maybe it's a mockingbird."
As I sit and write this, Darcy is right next to me, reading about the mockingbird (from her ornithology textbook that she STILL HAS) and why she believes these birds were mockingbirds. "It would make more sense."
This is what I live with. I love it.
***Editor's roommate's correction - "It was a Northern Mockingbird. I'm almost sure of it."
2 comments:
the interesting things that go through your head. that's why i love you.
dude...what's with the MEN comment? that's a very stereotypical comment and i don't appreciate it! who says that those birds were males anyways? :)
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