Bird Brains

As human beings we tend to be somewhat judgmental of our fellow man/woman. I know that one of the areas that I work on constantly is my tendency to be overly critical of others. I keep wasting my time fuming over some minor transgression perpetrated on me by someone else. That little something they did that just tipped me over and boy that just wasn’t right, RIGHT?. You know what I mean, the guy that stands right in front of the weight rack and does his routine while the rest of us have to wait until his Royal Highness is finished before we too can work out, or the woman that sits in her car at a green light talking on her cell phone and all you’d like to do is proceed through the intersection, or the person that’s ahead of you in line that decides they’d like to carry on a fifteen minute conversation with the person you need to talk to and on and on. Sometimes being a human being with these darn flaws can be very discouraging, especially when the “OTHER HUMAN BEINGS” are so damn imperfect and maddening. But guess what? There’s hope for all of us! For I have just discovered that the animal world has the same problems that we do and I give as evidence the bird feeder and bird baths that sit outside my kitchen window.

Now if you have a bird feeder replete with multiple bird baths you have them for a reason. They are there so that you can watch the small colorful song birds eat and bath all the while serenading you with those incredible songs. Nothing beats the tunes that can be knocked out by a talented Finch, Thrush or Robin. Yet sadly, much to my horror I’ve discovered there are even issues within the bird world. One day I heard this noisy commotion and looked out my kitchen window and it was as if my bird feeder had been covered by black locust, except they were in actuality, Starlings. Now Starlings are from my observation loud, obnoxious and always thinking of themselves. Sing? Ha! They couldn’t carry a tune in a shower located in Ireland even after downing a shot of Irish whiskey! What was worse, they had driven off my well mannered, polite and courteous song birds.

Well, a battle ensued because It was my intent to feed proper birds and when I checked my list, Starlings weren’t on it. It took more than a week, but at last peace and a sense of order was restored and the acceptable birds were back. Then one day I looked out my kitchen window and, Oh my God, there were a dozen Grackels out there and they made the Starlings look like little Bird Scouts. They had a terrible propensity to poop everywhere and they didn’t feed at the bird feeder, no they gorged themselves not unlike human Barbarians standing before a pig on a spit. Well, once again a battle ensued and finally order again was restored. My little backyard had once more become my little Woodstock with my little winged Joe Cocker's belting out glorious music all day long. Well, what happened next took me truly by surprise.

I looked out my kitchen window and there was the unruly group of sparrows that normally roost in my front yard crab apple tree. My goodness, I’ve never seen such disregard for the “Pool Rules” than I was witnessing at that very moment. They were splashing each other, there were four of them in one bird bath alone and I swear one of them did a cannonball right in the middle of the group, clearly a violation of the “No Running, No Jumping” rule. How was I to know that sparrows are like those little kids down at the municipal pool that drive the life guard crazy and blue in the face from blowing their whistles? And they were just like kids because every time I went outside to explain the rules they high tailed it into the tree and when I went back inside they were right back at it.

I learned a valuable lesson that day. We will never be able to control the behavior of others in our human world and it’s a waste of valuable time and energy to try. We need to recognize that everyone has the right to create their own lives and if we focus on creating ours, the people we don’t want in them will simply not be there. Animals and humans have some of the same issues. We sometimes have to endure a few “Bird Brains” in life, so just keep on focusing on what you want to Be, Do and Have and all you’ll hear is beautiful music! Now excuse me, I need to go fill the bird bath again.