steelhead52
Member
OK, as I sit reading I watch the catbirds in my New Jersey backyard, especially on the trellis frame where some of them hang out. As we know, with a mating-season couple, of many species, the female flutters her wings, demanding to be fed (even if there's bird seed on the ground right in front of her), and the male feeds her. Very cute. OK nowadays a catbird often comes to the trellis and flutters her (?) wings, as if to say "Feed me!," but no lover appears. Some tragedy has happened, I think. But then later a catbird (another one?) comes and makes its characteristic scratchy catcall, and no one comes. (He's calling her, but she is not there right then, and she can't hear him because of the neighbor's g-d-mn leaf blower?) And then, later, a catbird (male? female?) comes with a worm or seed in its mouth, as if wanting to feed someone, and does the wing-fluttering thing (wait, I thought that meant "Feed me!"), and no one comes, so I am confused. Is it only the females who do the wing-fluttering? Or does it mean, more generally, "Shall we share some food?" Is it only the male who makes the scratchy "catcall"?
Meanwhile, I wish I had a video of a red-bellied woodpecker challenging a Monk Parakeet the other day at the feeder. They did this whole head dance, the parakeet: "You, I dare say, you, you little twit, I beg your pardon, you are challenging me, you?!" and the red-bellied, sniping from below with his head, "Yeah, you, git! Git!"
Meanwhile, I wish I had a video of a red-bellied woodpecker challenging a Monk Parakeet the other day at the feeder. They did this whole head dance, the parakeet: "You, I dare say, you, you little twit, I beg your pardon, you are challenging me, you?!" and the red-bellied, sniping from below with his head, "Yeah, you, git! Git!"
