Feathered Friends

How enriched life is by friends!

Good friends, new friends, old friends, feathered friends.

(Laural Burch)

The hen is the worst of all the animal creatures ~

because she never cackles until the egg has been laid.

(President Abraham Lincoln)

Morton Feldman, spending some time in the park as he wateched our feathered friends, stated,

“They're not free! They're fighting over bits of food.”

Bird Tales ~ Amazing Stories About Feathered Friends

Morning Commotion: Early one morning while vacationing on Cape Cod, we were awakened by a loud noise right outside our window. I looked around outside and found a young bird in a tree having been disturbed. My wife, thinking there was a snake in the house, I ran to the rescue. Instead I found a red-tailed hawk perched on a rocking chair inside our enclosed porch ~ apparently, having flown through a slit in the screen door. It was amazing to see the gorgeous flier up close. Cautiously I guided the hawk to the door as my wife watched from a distance. The bird hopped out the door and quickly flew off, circling the house a few times as if to say, 'thanks.' (Kevin from New York)

Reindeer Games: My son was working on the mechanical reindeer for our Christmas display when a hawk suddenly flew at him. It dove toward him; instead, it grabbed the deer display with its claws and began hissing and flapping its wings. The reindeer continued its automated movements, knocking the hawk off its perch...and into the snow. The bird rolled over...stared up at the deer...spread its wings...and then disappeared. I guess the hawk was no match for a reindeeer! (Jane from Montreal)

Humming Along: I grew up in the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia where hummingbirds were a common sight. I've lived in Edmonton for 36 years now, and until recently, had never seen one here. In August of 2013, while sitting at my kitchen table with a coffee and the crossword puzzle...and overlooking my garden, noticing something land on a garden plant ~ wondering if it was a grasshopper; to my shock it was a hummingbird. Took several photos: the highlight of my summer. (Teresa)

Beware of Mockingbird: Sitting on my porch, a flash of movement in a vacant lot across the street, I saw a squirrel with a northern mockingbird following close behind. The duo made their way to my neighbour's roof...the bird pecking away at the squirrel's head. Some time later, the same mockingbird was seen chasing a red fox through my yard and across the road onto the vacant lot! (Barbara)

Some Like it Hot: I stood at our sliding glass doors and watched the flurries of our first major snowstorm. With camera in hand, I hoped the weather would draw the birds to our feeders and heated birdbath. At least a dozen robins descended on our garden at once to use the steaming birdbath! They landed on it...under it...and some even hovered overhead...completely oblivious to me with a camera while awaiting their morning's warm bath...and visit to our feeding station. (Julian, from Iowa)

Tanager Takes Out Wasps: Every summer the wasps do their best to 'decorate' our 4 porches (about 96 ft. In lenght) with their nests. A male summer Tanager, seemed to be dodging something because it was bobbing its head up and down; it had actually pulled down a wasps' nest. (George from Michigan)

Buzz Off! There was a buzzard on my roof...a large red-headed turkey vulture was sitting on the highest point of my house. (According to an old wives' tale, I knew, a vulture on your roof is a bad sign, but since it wan't doing any harm, I left him alone. Soon, several dark shadows flew overhead ...and looking up on the roof, there sat more than 20 vultures perched around an injured bird. Hearing a loud squawk, the group of birds parted. With their wings flapping slowly, they let out soft clucks, then rising together from the roof, they flew away. The lone bird joined them, wobbling at first before flying with the rest of the flock. (Kit from Vermont)

Fireworks at Ballpark Threat to Osprey: Aminor-league baseball fan in Florida is on a mission to help a pair of ospreys whose nest atop the left field lights is in the path of the weekly fireworks show.

Celine Sullivan is a longtime fan of the Daytona Torgugas.

She tells the Daytona Beach News Journal she watched the smoke and flaming debris swirl around the ospreys during a fireworks show after the home opener. Sullivan and David Hartgrove of the Halifax River Audubon chapter asked the team to either stop the fireworks show ~ or move it. It was not an issue last season when the nest was atop the first base lights. Team president and city spokesperson Susan Cerbone say they'll work on a solution. The team is an affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds.

(The foregoing are excerpts from the National Geographic magazine and local press)

Our Friend, The Bird

Our world is enhanced by birds on the wing;

They grace our blue skies as they chirp and they sing.

Their early spring songs bring joy to the ear,

A summer of songs many months we shall hear.

The robins, the sparrows, a help to mankind,

eat pesky mosquitoes and bugs that they find.

Geese on the lake or ducks on the shore,

they want to be friends and ask nothing more.

A companion for man, their songs fill the air,

enjoyment they bring, so much to share.

The hunmingbird's quickness shows lightening speed,

as it pollinates flowers seed after seed.

Year after year, there's a ritual sight

as geese form a V on their ritual flight.

Let's be their companions, protect what they need,

and our fine, feathered friends will return our good deed.

(Linda Macleod of Uxbridge, Ontario submitted this poem

on behalf for her friend, Ken Parsons, who sadly passed away at age of 81)

Compiled by Merle Baird-Kerr...April 17, 2018

Comments welcome: mbairdkerr@cogeco.ca or inezkate@gmail.com