The Mockingbird

A few years ago I had a nature blog called "Backyard Safari," where I wrote about trying to find the beauty of nature no matter where you were. My grandfather always enjoyed watching birds, first at the house they lived in for many decades, and then on the balcony of their apartment. 

In 2010 I e-mailed my Grandpa to ask if he could tell me about watching birds, and this is what he wrote back, presented in full, to let him speak for himself:

.

“As a child, I was probably only aware of and familiar with robins and sparrows.  Later on, I grew to appreciate the beauty and coloring of the cardinals and blue jays, since they are easily distinguishable.  Then when we lived [at our old house], we had a very interesting mocking bird.  He would sit on the chimney of the house across the street and sing through his whole repertoire, occasionally jumping straight up about five or six feet and returning back down to the same chimney to continue his repertoire.  This could go on for four or five minutes–and the strangest thing was he might even be doing it at 11 or 12 o’clock at night.  During that summer, he also perched on the top of our garage and I would put pieces of apple or grapes on the back kitchen window sill and he would come and get them.  After a while, if I forgot to put the fruit out, he would show up at the top of the garage and wait for his food.  That was the most fun.

I guess I never got into the other birds too much until we moved out here–although we did have a bird feeder [at the old house] which your father installed safely on the top of a pole.  So he fed not only the birds but my continued interest in them.

When we moved where we are now, your wonderful father put up the finch-food feeder and the hummingbird feeder on our deck, both of which have been feeding many birds since then.  So you can credit your dad and mom for my continued interest.  And last year your dad brought the suet holder and suet, so we have a third source for them.

I miss the mocking birds–we never seen any anymore here.  But on most every day we do have goldfinches and purple finches, hummingbirds and cat birds, black- capped chicadees, cardinals, nuthatches, downy woodpeckers and many sparrows or similar types, including the chipping sparrow.  Still a few are a mystery.  It all proves nature is beautiful and a part of God’s plan.”

.