Bird-chirping Weather
Of the hundreds of different species of Kentucky birds, I’ve lately been fascinated by the flight paths of a band of wildly determined feathered folk.
They gather themselves, these starlings, although they could be grackle cousins, or other members of the blackbird family. Any way you look at it, they tend to serious business.
They swirl around our front yard.
They swoop together in joyous abandon.
They soar up, then come diving back in, I suppose, to taste again the insect targets. Then, as if to confuse the community of worms, they rise once more in patterns reminding me of the first lick of state fair cotton candy, madness deliciously confected.
No, I do not for a minute wish I were a bird, neither the starling nor the majestic bald eagle. But I do wish to learn a few things whenever possible. It’s never too late to check out untried home ports.
“Birds of a feather flock together” has been one of the longstanding favorite sayings around these parts, generally meant to convey an uncomplimentary state of affairs.
Down with rampant individuality. Watch out for those loner red-tailed hawks. They’re definitely up to no good. We need team players. There’s a joker in every new pack of cards. Watch out for the fly in the ointment. Who said the camel was designed by committee?
I turned to The Kentucky Encyclopedia and read Burt L. Monroe Jr.’s entry, which referred me to The Annotated Checklist of the Birds of Kentucky. (There are other helpful bird-watching sources, including Kentucky Birds and The Complete Birder.)
My sympathy is with any bird driven by false hope of safety or guaranteed success in numbers. I favor bird in hand worth two in bush…insect in bill worth two on fly…stitch in time saves nine…two to tango.
Mother Nature apparently has a different idea, and who am I to think otherwise? Well, we were given minds to think with, were we not? The point is: it takes a courageous bird to test new flight patterns, which could lead to new creative clusters. Sticking with the old, the tried and true, just might lead a few feathered friends down fatal garden paths.
Proposal: encourage originality; fear not differences of opinion; honor until-now untried problem solving.
So cometh and goeth the month of April. (Remember, it was Jesse Stuart who said, “Hold April.”)
The songs of the poet laureates, past and present, have emerged from wintry places with robin scouts leading the way. The magnificent Kentucky cardinal has warbled. The purple martin has returned. It’s time to think of spring and festivals throughout the Commonwealth.
Kentucky Living can help in locating new places to visit. Why? To savor the richness of the land. To protect habitats of every sort. To remind both birds and human creatures that there’s a place for everybody.
