Empty Nest Syndrome

Reader Contribution by Cindy Murphy
Published on September 24, 2010
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“Look. There’s my doves.”

Shelby and I were sitting on the back porch, talking, when two pairs of doves flew in and started pecking at the spilled safflower seed on the ground around the bird feeder.

Your doves? Mom, those aren’t your birds; they’re Nature’s birds.”

She is, of course, right. I can’t lay claim to nature’s creatures, but while they’re in my yard, they’re referred to as “my birds.” We enjoy quite a varied lot of avian visitors – much more than just the flocks of sparrows and house finches that crowded the feeder when we first moved in. My plantings of trees, shrubs, and gardens have attracted daily regulars – robins, jays, my wren, goldfinches, chickadees, nuthatches, hummingbirds, cardinals, and Earl the downy woodpecker, (I have no idea if it’s the same woodpecker I see every day; all woodpeckers are named Earl); occasionally there will be a red-winged black bird, grosbeak, or flicker.

And my crows. Given they’re my favorites, it’s odd I haven’t given them names, except The One with the Broken Crower. Though it chatters constantly, I’ve never hear it “caw”; instead it lets out a series of clicks, and a gurgly trilling call that sounds like a lawnmower badly in need of a tune up. I have a lot of admiration for crows. They and their kin – the raven, magpie, and jay are extremely intelligent birds; perhaps the most intelligent in the bird world. There is a flock of about 200 that roost in winter in the huge pine tree behind our across-the-street neighbor’s yard. In spring, they break into their family units. Crows usually mate for life, and it is not unusual for their young to remain with the parents for a few years. The four that are constantly in my yard this year are probably parents and their grown offspring. They are clowns, always doing something entertaining.

Spring always brings a lot of migratory birds that stay for a brief time before continuing on their journey to more northern grounds. A flock of warblers that hung around for a week in April announced that this was going to be a season for the birds.

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