Bird Story

 

Bird Story

 

This summer I was spending a lot of free time in my backyard – gardening, taking pictures of beautiful palm trees and blooming plants, and reading in the great outdoors. Besides, there were many beautiful black birds to watch in my neighborhood. I mean, by my observation, it was more than usual. I never saw as many black birds in this area as prior that July. They came in groups and in couples. Our new growing up trees became a heaven for these travel-to-south birds.

Particularly, it was one black bird that situated at the higher point of the electrical poll. It was loud, and it looked like the bird was watching me. Well, this bird took control of the enclosed territory. Meantime, I was forced out from my backyard seat because the birds simply pushed me away.

Well, the same day, I decided to go to the beach for the morning walk. I was wearing a bright open top, shorts, and running sneakers. Unfortunately, the same happened on my way to the beach along the side road. A two-pond black bird attacked me. Suddenly, I went down from a strong flop to my back. The black bird tracked me down from the treetop, followed me, and the bird body slammed me in the back with all its strength. For a moment, it felt painful; and I was scared. This exit to the beach included a new remodeled building, a pool, and new tree landscaping consisted out of beautiful tall palm trees that attracted concerned black birds.

I had one question on my mind, why? It never happened before. First, at home, and now, at the ocean sidewalk, at the ‘suppose-to-be’ the quietest time before the early afternoon. I carefully tried to avoid the trees and the street along the trees. I went around the street in south direction to another exit to the beach. All the time I was thinking about what happened to me. Why are these birds expressed this aggressive conduct? Why are they attaching people? Are they sick? Is their unusual behavior connected to the migration problems or the avion virus possibilities?

As the time past, the birds’ troubling was smoothed. One morning, I was seating in the backyard and working on editing my manuscript. My attention had been drawn to the tweeting birds – to the small brown bird, and two big black birds. Well, after all the extraordinary events, I got it. The big black birds were nesting in my neighborhood. The growing up trees attracted them in my backyard and the streets in the surrounding. They were perfect parents that protected the nests with their precious outsprings. The small brown bird was their baby bird, and the parents were taking care of their extended family.

Such a scary, but at the same time, it was a sweet eco-story that made me a victim character and a participant in the eco-scenery! Amazing, how flora and fauna both are in unity; and we, humans, caught in the middle of the birds’ affairs! The song from the sixties got in my head and was on my mind: “The sun is shining, the grass is green, and the birds are chirping for the new beginning.” The city is growing, and the ecosystem is changing too. The racoons on the beach, the seagulls of the surfside, the black birds on the top of the palm trees, and the squirrels that are visiting us almost daily make me care for trees and green space.

We are encroaching on bird habitats. There are more bird-human interactions. Wildlife experts warn that chirping bird attacks on humans are growing and are more common as people continue to trespass on bird nesting territory.

Ida Tomshinsky @ 2022