Seeing it anew
Yesterday, I was talking on my cell phone on the rear patio of my office building at around 2:45. I go there to take calls in privacy, or if I just need to stretch my legs a bit. Usually, once I get out there, I find four or five people muttering into their own cell phones. We all spread out across the area, and sit with our backs to one another. Humans are funny that way.
I have found that the patio is a good place to observe birds. Usually, I can see a handful out there, at any given time.
The back patio is where I saw the Anna's Hummingbirds mating. I saw the pair of Abert's Towhees out there, last week. There are always grackles back there, up to their usual--which sometimes includes fighting with their own reflection in the window.
I love the grackles. They are loud and pushy, but very smart for a bird. They are graceful in design. They are hated by some people, and considered pests because they flock in large numbers and scavenge. To me, common does not equal ugly. I envy their grace.
As I said, yesterday, I was standing on the edge of the lawn. I was on the phone, but I was watching the birds. A mockingbird was engaged in a stand-off with a female grackle near the fence. The grackle was nesting, as I had been watching her fly back and forth with bundles of grass and straw in her bill. Tempers were flaring! Mockingbirds can be very territorial and aggressive. It was quite a display of wing flashing and posturing. I was delighted.
Off to my right, I noticed a small bird I had not seen before. It was actually kind of pretty. It looked like a finch, but it had a silver-grey head and a black body. I blurted into the phone that I wished I had my camera. When my friend asked why, I said that I had just seen a bird I'd never seen before, and I wanted a photo so I could identify it later.
He said, "Then you don't need a camera; you need a book."
He was right. I checked my field guide when I got home. What I saw was an immature brown-headed cowbird. It was very clear in the book. That explains why there was only one bird. Finches are social and tend to flock, but cowbirds are solitary.
It made me wonder: can you imagine the life of a baby cowbird? You are born to a family that is nothing like you. You are raised by a mother who is not really your own, and you look nothing like her or any of the fledglings in the nest with you that you have not killed. You are fledged, and then you are on your own.
I wonder how they find each other to mate (and mate and mate and mate)? By the nature of their breeding process, they are spread all over the place. This is an interesting little bird.
I'll have to study up on it, when I'm not late for work.