Ken and I have a new neighbor:
She is a Mourning Dove and her name is Phyllis. She is nesting on our front porch post. She actually is a return neighbor as she nested there last year, too. In fact, she even came in to visit once last year. I teach voice lessons, so two afternoons a week, there's lots of in and out activity through our front door. One day as Abbey was coming to her lesson, Mrs. Mourning got spooked and came right in with her. It was quite the adventure as Abbey and I tried to figure out how to get her back out. She was scared to death and so were we! We opened the back and the front door and finally herded her out the back.
My sister, Joan visited us last weekend. It was so fun to have her here. But it was very revealing to learn how scared Joan was of Mama Mourning. The bird just sits there stoically with all the comings and goings( I think she learned last year that she's safe and no one is going to hurt her,) but Joan was just SURE she was going to dive bomb her and get in her hair and stuff. Every time Joan went in or out the door, she had to muster all her courage. I felt I needed to psychoanalyze her to get to the root of her problem. She revealed the hatching of her fear: When we were growing up, we made frequent trips with our parents to the Malheur Bird Refuge in Oregon. A frequent stop was a bridge that had hundreds of swallow nests under it.
When we'd stop, those birds would leave their nest, and just like in the movie, swoop and make bird sounds. It was deafening. Our brother, John saw a great opportunity to scare the bejeebies out of us. He would muss our hair and make bird sounds and make us think the birds were attacking us. Poor Joan is still suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome. Are you thrilled I've outed you, Joan? I hope this innocent little bird won't keep you from visiting in spring again? Her predecessor was a Say's Phoebe. She was far more skittish and would dive bomb my students after her eggs hatched and she had babies to protect. So, it could be worse. I'll bet you don't have such interesting new neighbors at your house!
When we'd stop, those birds would leave their nest, and just like in the movie, swoop and make bird sounds. It was deafening. Our brother, John saw a great opportunity to scare the bejeebies out of us. He would muss our hair and make bird sounds and make us think the birds were attacking us. Poor Joan is still suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome. Are you thrilled I've outed you, Joan? I hope this innocent little bird won't keep you from visiting in spring again? Her predecessor was a Say's Phoebe. She was far more skittish and would dive bomb my students after her eggs hatched and she had babies to protect. So, it could be worse. I'll bet you don't have such interesting new neighbors at your house!
5 comments:
Fun post. I'll bet you guys love having such a different kind of neighbor.
I think I would react the same way as Joan I may need some analyzing! What a fun little bird to have visiting!
Cute post and cute story! Sounds like I missed more than fun and an education about birds by missing all those trips to the bird sanctuary! I can totally see John doing that!
Haha! What a great story. I think I'd be a little scared or it too.
Wow. I just learned SO much about my own mother. Go figure!! That bird was a little freaky (if you've ever seen Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds")...Lucy loved her though!
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