Mockingbird Chronicles Part IX

This may be my final Mockingbird post.  The babies now spend some of their time in neighbors’ yards and once they learn to feed themselves I will have no means of tracking them.  I follow them as best I can now.

One sibling lags behind the other, slower to fly, slower to learn to feed.  Despite what I’ve read, mom also keeps watch and occasionally provides food.  And they are learning to make adult mockingbird sounds.  They are in this in between split personality phase.  I see their beaks move and one minute a baby squeal emits and the next an adult squawk.  It’s quite startling, almost like hearing cuss words from a 5 year old.  Maybe it’s at this point in the story I apologize to my neighbors, for no doubt, in a few months, all the Mockingbirds will be singing 24/7, including these two.  It’s the relentless singing in the middle of the night when you’re trying to sleep that makes the Mockingbird unpopular.  I confess it even tries the patience of this nature lover.

But not everyone dislikes Mockingbirds.  “If you happened to find yourself at the foot of the stairs in the White House on a typical afternoon sometime around 1804 or 1805, you might have noticed a perky bird in a pearl-gray coat ascending the steps behind Thomas Jefferson, hop by hop, as the president retired to his chambers for a siesta.” (from The Genius of Birds by Diane Ackerman).  This was Dick, Jefferson’s pet Mockingbird.

I for one am honored to be a part of this journey and will try hard to remember the joy of it when their singing keeps me up at night this summer.