LOVE BY ANY OTHER NAME

The following occurred in "my back yard" in the summer of 2006... Marilyn

THE ORPHAN EGG

I continue to see my back yard as a microcosm of the world. I have a difficult time understanding physics, but I once read a book on chaos theory and as a result, I see patterns repeating themselves over and over, down to the minutest particles I’m able to see. A world within a world within a world. As I watch the events unfolding in my back yard, I find myself relating them to what’s going on in the world at large.

I have a couple of feeders and some water dishes for the birds in my back yard. I love watching my feathered friends, even though I don’t know very much about birds. I often turn to my bird books and field guides to seek information about the birds I am seeing.

One morning I watched a single small blackbird on the grass behaving strangely. A brilliant red Cardinal would frequently fly down to this little bird. As he did so, the blackbird would ruffle its feathers and flap its wings. I know Cardinals are very territorial and I thought he might be trying to chase the blackbird away. I silently applauded the little bird’s efforts to resist this aggression.

As I continued to look out my window, I noticed a different behavior between the two birds. The Cardinal seemed to be “nuzzling” the beak of the blackbird. “Hmmm”, I thought, “could all that fluttering and ruffling of feathers be some kind of courting ritual? Between two different species of birds?” Someone must be confused – and it was probably me! I longed for a pair of binoculars to see the pair up close. After watching for several minutes, I realized that the Cardinal was going to the feeder, then coming back to the little blackbird and feeding it!

All day that day, I could not stay away from the window. I even put out more birdseed than usual, hoping to keep them around longer. I watched the Cardinal get into the water dish and take a bath, shortly followed by the blackbird. The Cardinal was parenting the little bird and teaching it how to care for itself. I have read stories about some birds that lay their eggs in another bird’s nest and then abandon them. I can’t remember if crows or starlings do that. Perhaps that is how these two came together.

It has warmed my heart to observe this little miracle in my back yard. I thought of many analogies as I watched this odd couple the next few days, but my first thought was of the wonderful people who are adopting orphaned children from all over the world as well as in our own country. Most of them have so much love to give a child that they never give a thought to the color of its skin.

I was also reminded of the terrible tragedy going on in the Sudan (Note: The Congo has lost 5.4 million people due to the conflict going on there as well.) and all the hungry, often orphaned little children. We should take lessons from the beautiful proud Cardinal and help feed the people of that beleaguered country as well as help them in their efforts to become independent and care for themselves. With peaceful means, of course. As it goes in my back yard. .. Marilyn Moragne July '06

Recently, I was amazed to have the following video forwarded to me. Thank you, Ann Burton, for this touching little vignette. As I watched it, I began to tell myself that this just might be the little Crow I watched being mothered by a Cardinal in my back yard! What do you think?