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Today I Expect They Will Begin to Fly. Will You?
If you follow this blog, you know my husband and I have moved to Florida. It’s been a long two weeks, but we are now settled in our temporary housing, a nice home in the same community where we will be building a new home. (Yes, another move!) Here in my new space, my desk sets right next to a window, looking out over some garden palms. Pretty, and I thought maybe peaceful, too. I’d be able to get some work done – a quiet place to work on APHA business and book writing… Until early last week when I began to hear chirping noises out the window, only to discover that interwoven in the base of the palm fronds, among a tangle of Spanish moss, there sat a bird nest – with babies in it! Since then I have been fascinated (my husband would call it “obsessed”) with all the activity, watching two adult birds leave then return then leave again from no more than 8 feet away. And then, two days ago, I could see the babies for the first time. Two of them, their little yellow beaks wide open, popping up and down inside the nest, chirping loudly and continuously. “We’re hungry! Bring us more food!” I’ve never been more than casually interested in birds, but of course, this experience has piqued my interest, and I’ve now spent some time studying these birds and their habits. It took me a while to figure out what kind of bird they are. Gray, adults with white underbellies, a white “stripe” through their wings, babies with streaked underbellies. I finally settled on the Northern Mockingbird, which would explain why it was difficult to hear a consistent song. All this observation and study has done some serious damage to all that time I thought I’d be able to devote to catching up on my work! The babies seem to have two distinct personalities. One seems quite bold, and while waiting for Mom or Dad to bring food (because both Mockingbird parents feed their young) she stands on the rim of the…