learning from a bird

Hello to all!

The smallest things can appeal to me, and yesterday, I found another. A small, bedraggled young butcher bird, trying to call/sing/whatever. There had been a bad storm and obviously he/she got caught in it. These birds have the prettiest song, although they are nothing to look at, either black and white or grey and white.

People rave about how magpies can sing. Personally, I prefer these little guys, about a quarter the size of a magpie and very much less aggressive. I have seen them cringe when a much  tinier honey-eater flies over the top of them. Besides, I have a personal aversion to magpies. I cannot bring myself to feed anything that is your best friend for six months, and then acts as though you are the worst enemy in the world for the next six months.

I know this is parent-care. And I can understand it very well indeed being used on strange people. But these dumb birds dive-bomb the hand that feeds them and still expect to get fed. So no, I don't feed them at all. Funny, as a child, my elder brother used to rear ones that had fallen/got pushed out of a nest and I can never remember them attacking any of us when they were grown and with their own families. Come to demand a hand-out, yes. Attack us, no way.

Anyway, my little friend sat on the clothesline and shook and shivered and tried its heart out to sing. I gave it some mince, very gratefully received, and it went back to trying to sing. Very much like an opera singer tuning up, except this was a series of very low squarks. But it finally got there, after about ten minutes. And it sang its little heart out for about five minutes, then went off, dry and fed.

Which makes me wonder: How many human beings give up the minutes things don't go their way? I think we are all guilty of that at some point, and maybe we should have tried a bit longer, like that little bird. It was so determined to sing, nothing was going to stop it, even food and being dry. I have no idea why the singer couldn't sing, just it couldn't. It was so determined though: the features fluffed out, it's small neck bulged with the effort.

So, there's a simple lesson in that, I guess. Keep trying, you'll get there sooner or later. :)