Walking home late last evening from a meditation class, I crossed Colesville Road and started up the hill on Spring Street. To the left is a parking garage with a strip of grass, shrubs, and some landscaping trees. A little patch of habitat, where Wednesday morning I had noticed a mockingbird and thought it seemed an unlikely place to make a home.
Last night a plump, fluffy bird in a tree branch over the sidewalk caught my attention. I didn't recognize it right away, and then I saw, a few feet away, an adult mockingbird. I had a little rush of the cute baby emotion as I realized this was a baby mockingbird enduring a little helicopter parenting.
This morning I walked into the front room and thought I'd go to the window and look out at the day, before settling in to meditate. A rustle in the shrub beneath the window - the same shrubs with the now-abandoned cardinal nest - caught my attention. A dark backed bird perched in the top twigs of the shrub. A robin was on the lawn in front of the shrubs, and both birds were cheeping.
The bird in the shrub, smaller than the other, fluttered its wings awkwardly and disappeared down into the leaves. More cheeping. Then it fluttered up again into the top layer and sat. The parent, down on the grass, waited - patiently, or impatiently, I couldn't tell. Then the little one powered up its wings and launched off in a low flight - arcing down to almost touch the ground before disappearing behind the dogwood over in the hastas.
I wish both these little ones success in their launch into life.
No comments:
Post a Comment