Birds Pose Questions To Ponder

Across the Fence #504

Since I retired at the end of May I’ve been walking 2-3 miles every day and trying to get back in shape. I’ve spent too many years sitting at a desk. It feels good to be doing something physical again and being able to walk up a hill without getting winded.

Walking for me is a solitary activity. It’s my time to think and let my mind wander. That’s hard to do if you’re talking to someone or listening to an iPod while walking. I’ve always preferred to exercise alone. Even when I used to run every day and cross country ski in the winter, I did those activities alone most of the time.

When I was younger, my “thinking time” was in the silo while I was throwing down silage for the cows. I’ve referred to that period of my life as “Silo Philosophy 101.” Everyone should have a quiet time each day, where you are by yourself and can meditate and think. By thinking I mean that you should be asking yourself questions about life and searching for answers. I question everything and try to figure out the hows and whys. I don’t mean questions like, “Why does it always rain when you wash your car?” Some questions just don’t have easy answers. Maybe you should have washed the car on a different day?

I have a lot more questions than I have answers. So many of them deal with life and death. Where did we come from? Why are we here? Where are we going? I don’t have blinders on when it comes to thinking about these subjects and new scientific discoveries. I once heard the phrase, “A closed mind is like a steel trap that’s rusted shut. It’s no good for anything.”

My walks often give me questions to ponder. Today while walking I came across a baby robin sitting in the middle of our country road. Two robins, who I assumed were the frantic parents, were calling excitedly as I approached. Their baby was in harm’s way, and just like a couple of human parents, they were going to protect their baby even if it meant sacrificing themselves. The closer I got to the young robin the more excited the parents became. The one was flying from branch to branch in the trees next to the road and finally began flying in circles above me and loudly scolding this monster that was approaching her baby.

I stopped briefly to examine the bird and it made no attempt to flee. I wondered if it had tried to fly and found out it wasn’t ready. Now it was stuck there in the middle of the road, at the mercy of anything that came by; a walker, a car or truck, a wandering cat, or a fellow winged carnivore looking for a meal. I continued my walk to the end of our road, turned around, and headed back. It hadn’t moved and was still in the middle of the road. I couldn’t let it sit there and be hit by a passing car. I had to move it. As I bent down and gently picked it up, it opened it’s mouth expecting food. Then it realized it was in the clutches of a giant monster and began squawking and flapping its wings. The parents were now in full panic mode and began dive-bombing me. I set it down gently in the grass on the edge of the road and continued on my way. One robin was on the road in front of me, acting like a killdeer, trying to lure me away from it’s baby. It didn’t flap its wing as if it had been hurt, like I’ve seen killdeers do, but it lowered one wing as if it was hurt. Meanwhile the other robin was circling and dive-bombing at me. They didn’t seem to appreciate that I had tried to save their baby’s life. I have no idea if the little one lived through the day or became a meal for a hungry predator. Such is life. Nature can be cruel and the story doesn’t always end, “and they lived happily ever after.”

Later in the day I heard a killdeer making a lot of noise in the road near our house. When I checked, it looked like a bird was lying in the road. I went to investigate and the killdeer that was doing all the squawking was reluctant to move at first. It appeared to be guarding and mourning the loss of it’s mate. It finally flew off, but kept circling and calling as I took the dead bird, that appeared to have been hit by a car, and put it in the ditch beside the road. It will probably become a meal for another animal or bird, as the circle of life and death continues.

In the space of a few hours, I had witnessed parents trying to protect their young baby from harm, and another bird mourning the death of it’s mate and not wanting to leave it's side. This morning when I went for my walk, a killdeer was wandering around in the road near the spot where the one was killed yesterday. Was it the mate? I don’t know, but the two incidents involving birds give me more questions to seek answers to.

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