Despite the fact that I think of my myself as a fairly observant person (I am one, I just have my specialities, like human behavior) I now recognize that I have literally never even touched on observing birds before.
Now, before I go on, I want you to know, dear reader, (singular, hahaha, so much truth that) that I am resisting getting a bird feeder to attract birds. I think there are multiple reasons why and the first and foremost reason is that I do not want to create a situation where any living being is dependent on me for anything and I am under the impression that once you start feeding the birds you need to be consistent about it. The other reason is CHEATING. I haven't cheated on anything since high school (remind me to tell you the story of some regent exam, I think it was a social studies class) and cheating is just not my way. I'm the fool who gets handed extra change and gives the cashier a math lesson while returning it. Also, when did this country stop learning basic math skills? I remember my mother's favorite cashier at the grocery store and she was a freaking computer. I loved her and her blonde cray 70's fro hair. Remember when people with curly hair let the curls happen? Those were the good old days.
Anyways, as I was saying, I realize I never spent a second noticing birds, other than, have you ever noticed that you really don't see dead pigeons almost ever? I grew up in NYC and I always wondered how they weren't getting hit by cars and what happened to their bird bodies after they died because you'd think there would be pigeon carcasses lying all over the place. Speaking of pigeons, when I was growing up we lived on the 19th floor and our apartment overlooked some buildings that were probably only 6 or 7 stories high so we saw their roofs (OMG I saw someone spell that rooves the other day and my head almost exploded) and on one of the roofs was a pigeon coop. Every once in a blue moon I'd spot the guy who took care of the pigeons let them out and he would have this big white flag that he would sway back and forth and the pigeons would fly in this big bird cloud back and forth along with the flag. It was magical. If I could turn back time I'd sit there with my camera.
Anyways, I am noticing that different birds in my backyard behave differently and I am embarrassed that I never even considered that before even though it makes total sense. The birds I see most often are robins and sparrows and I really like them both. They tolerate me very well. I feel the robins give me a show, sometimes almost modeling for the lens. I am tempted to jokingly say creepy photographer things, like Oh baby, show me a little more shoulder, that''s right, look at daddy, good girl, now pout. But, you know, someone might hear, and thats the last thing I need in my life. I do however say things like Turn around or Look to the left and naturally, I greet them in the beginning, but like a normal greeting and not a creepy one. I also thank them when they fly away because I want them to know how grateful I am for their cooperation.
The sparrows I think are most bonded with me (I am NOT crazy) because they have begun to check me out while I am checking them out. Just today I was standing by a small evergreen where I suspect they have a nest, but looking up into the oak leaves of the tree 10 feet away when one of my sparrow friends popped out and stood on a branch just looking right at me. He wasn't more than 4 feet away. In that little moment I knew that he wasn't afraid of me and that just made me so happy. I also noticed that they have been flying past me so close that if I had lightening quick reflexes I could reach to and grab them as they passed. Just imagining that is hilarious. It'll never happen. So, now that I am super hard thinking about this either the sparrows are my new besties or you're gonna find my corpse laying in the backyard clutching a camera with a really long lens on it and pecked to death. I'd say it's 50/50 odds right now.
Anyways, about the cheating on the Regents exam.... For those of you who didn't get lucky enough to grow up in New York State, we got these standardized exams called Regents at the end of the school year in most of our academic classes. One time I was heading in to school for a one of the Regents and some kids ran by with a stolen copy of the test. My friend and I hid with those kids and we all scribbled what we collectively thought were the answers in the smallest pieces of paper we could find. I used the wrapper to a piece of trident gum. However, not really being that kind of cheater I almost had a heart attack when I sat down in the room to take the exam and managed to get the teacher to allow me to got to the bathroom in the last seconds before the test officially started and I flushed the elicit gum wrapper down the toilet. I ended up getting better grade than my friend who used all the answers the collective group had come up with. Moral of the story: Don't cheat with the kids who didn't study enough, cheat off the brainy kids or don't cheat at all.
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