The sign of high summer is the juvenile blackbirds.
Their parents get them out on the lawns to feed.
The juveniles are about the same size as their parents.
They follow them around, crying for food, and the parents find what they can as fast as they can and stuff it down their beaks.
The mockingbirds have their second chick hatched and out of the nest.
I hear it keening for food once in a while.
The other day I had the chance to score more points with the parents.
A crow stubbornly refused to leave in spite of all their pecks.
Crows have an image problem. They think they're only about 1/3 of their actual size.
Half a dozen of them will mob a small tree that half a dozen robins would have trouble finding perches in.
If the little tree has any weaknesses, it will break down.
Also a crow will flee from two birds that add up to about 1/3 its size.
Anyway, I went out and clapped my hands sharply twice.
The crow took notice.
I walked closer, clapped again. Twice more.
The crow jumped off the power line and flew heavily off, mockingbirds attacking it all the way.
Later the father came and sat on the line that leads to my house and examined me.
Yeah, I have friends in high places now.
© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights Reserved
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