Ornithology

Remember these metal wind-up birds that came with a key to wind them up, and how they were painted bright colors, and then they made that great ratchety noise while you wound them up? And then how you'd set them down and they'd bounce away all tippy and unpredictable, sort of pecking at the floor as they moved a little frantically at first but in an unnervingly bird-like way, getting slower and slower until they stopped?

I loved those, mostly for the key and the ratchety noise.

Just now I was sitting outside in a courtyard near my office so I could look at something that wasn't these monitor screens and the cinderblock wall behind them and the beautifully illuminated at this time of day, but still it's a damn brick wall outside my window. Someone had put a bunch of ripped-up stale bread out for the birds, and there was lots of bird activity going on. A lot of them had flown away when I arrived, but there was still a mama cardinal feeding a recently-fledged juvenile. She was going back & forth between the bread and the sort of sheltered area where the baby was, and putting food in its mouth. It still had some fluffiness to its feathers, the young one did, and kept flapping its wings enthusiastically but without much effect. It seemed pretty happy about the food. Now & then it would hop out of the sheltered area to see where mom was going, only to be shooed back out of the clearing & under the branches.

And then this big burly robin showed up and squawked a little at Ms. Mama, who mostly ignored him, but stayed between him and the baby. And then four or five little sparrow-like birds showed up, and the small clearing was full of these hopping, pecking, bouncy little birds, sort of swarming, almost, if birds can swarm. They weren't as brightly colored as those old tin birds, but they were every bit as dementedly mechanical as those wind-up imitations. Only they didn't make that ratchety noise while they hopped, and they didn't slow down at all while I was watching.