Irritating Catbird Neighbors
I have a pair of nesting catbirds in the Japanese maple in my front yard. For a couple months now I’ve watched them setting up house and listening to their occasional mewing. At the same time of course, they were watching me. I knew where they were, they knew where I was.
This morning, as I packed my car for a trip to the Goodwill clothing bins (re: this post), they were screaming in my face like they’d just then figured out there was a human in the neighborhood. I’d bring a load out to the car and one of them would perch on the limb closest to my front door and yell at me. As I walk to the car it would follow from one branch to the next. By the time I got back to my front door they were both there yelling at me.
I’ve no idea how many eggs they had in the nest but I figured one of the younglings had fallen out and was probably hiding somewhere in the azalea by my front steps. The screams got louder the closer I was to my front door and the azalea is the only place there where a small bird can hide. So after I got the car loaded I paused on the front steps and, not moving, scanned the bush beside them with my eyes while the catbirds screamed at me. There it was, keeping still and quiet. It still had most of its down, but a few feathers had already grown in. Its wings however, were no where near flight capable. Problem is, I need to use my front door every now and then.
We have cats in the neighborhood, so I don’t know if the little youngling is going to make it, but at least it wasn’t advertising its whereabouts like a mockingbird youngling will (and I’ve never figured that out), so maybe it can keep hidden until it’s wings grow in. In the meantime, I’ve got a couple of catbirds that don’t want me using my front porch anymore. There was a nice summer shower just now and with it a slight cooling breeze and I wanted to sit out on the front porch with a drink and enjoy it and I couldn’t because the catbirds kept screaming at me. Oh well. Better catbirds then mockingbirds. Were they mockingbirds I’d have been getting pecked as well as screamed at.
July 15th, 2008 at 2:42 am
BlueJays can be an extreme menace around here. Cardinals too.
There has been an on-going war around here between our cats and the BlueJays. I’m not sure who wins. But the cat will just lay down on his side, on the porch roof or out in the open, and the infuriated BlueJays will scream and dive-bomb him as he just lays there cool as a cuccumber. Then, at some point he will just reach up and pluck one out of the air during it’s dive at him. He will torture it as every bird in the neighborhood goes nuts.
But now and then, one of the Jays will do a sneak attack as the cat is walking along, and nail in right in the butt with its beak…..Sending the surprised cat jumping about 10 feet into the air.
July 15th, 2008 at 9:53 am
I’ve seen those fights between cats and Mocking Birds, which are related to Blue Jays. The Mocking Birds, out here anyway, are way more fierce then the Blue Jays. They will attack people if they get too close to the nest, which is why I said I was glad my neighbors aren’t a pair of those.
Sparrows are interesting to watch around cats. They swarm and its like every swarm has its designated lookouts. I watched a cat come strolling up my alley one afternoon and a flock of sparrows were eating something in my back yard, probably the grass seed I’d put out earlier, just on one side of the chain link fence. The cat was on the other side and strolled right up to the fence and started staring at the flock of sparrows. The sparrows just went on about their business, seeming to just completely ignore the cat, but they stayed Exactly far enough away from the fence to keep out of the cat’s reach. And I mean Exactly. They toed that line right in front of that cat and I could swear they were taunting it, except they never squawked or fussed at the cat or anything. They just kept on eating as though it wasn’t there. Probably my grass seed.
The cat had to know it was fucked. The birds were just out of reach and if it tried hopping over the fence they’d scatter before it even hit the ground on the other side. Eventually the cat seemed to just shrug and continued strolling on down the alley. I watched two sparrows peel off from the flock and follow it halfway down the alley before flying back to rejoin the others.