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Mon | July 11, 2005
evil mockingbird
my father used to be a farmer-- or a farm boy, as he calls himself. he says they used buffalo to plow the fields. I think it was not the american buffalo but a buffalo of a different sort. after school he would take the buffalo out to graze and then sit under the shade of a tree to study.
it is a remnant of my father's agrarian past that he spends much of his spare time surveying our small plot of lawn. he walks around with his hands in his pockets and looks at the grass and the woodchips and the trees. sometimes I join him and he will point at certain tree branches and tell me they are dying. he will show me where he has dug out the edges of the landscaping.
on saturday we were thus engaged in this activity when we heard a squirrel fall out of a tree. or specifically, we heard the slapping sound when he hit the pavement at the end of his twenty-something foot fall. by the time we turned around to look the squirrel was walking away. not limping, or moving irregularly, but walking. squirrels, you know, usually hop and bound their way along, unless they are feeling cautious, or I suppose in this case, a little woozy.
overhead we saw the mockingbird flying away. I am not sure if this is the proper name for the bird but it's what we call it. it is a small grey bird with a white stripe on its tail.
it's the only animal I have actively disliked, besides perhaps rats and mice, which just about everyone dislikes, for being dirty house and apartment infestations. but I mean disliked for its personality, for just the way they are. oh wait there are oblivious pigeons-- the way they just walk around without seeming to know where they're going. they can be mildly infuriating. they are like tourists that walk in weird directions and disrupt pedestrian traffic flow.
anyway it is kind of interesting that the mockingbird seems to have a personality (as opposed to say, the robins or the bluejays). but it is unfortunate that it is such a rotten one. it is very territorial and it will take on anyone. it literally attacks other animals for no reason. I have actually found dead birds next to the mockingbird's favorite tree, which I suspect were killed by the mockingbird. and I have seen it chasing squirrels across the lawn. when sharif amin came to my house he called the bird by a different name, and said that it takes on dogs. which just seems so crazy to me, because some dogs can catch birds.
anyway the mockingbird is just really mean. that squirrel that fell out of the tree-- taking a bunch of leaves and twigs with it-- amazingly, walked away, but was probably bleeding internally and walked into some bushes somewhere to die.
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