Chirp. Chew. Spit. Sleep.

As I have been taking the time to smell the roses, I have stumbled upon some very lovely and sometimes shiny objects.

My little Finch family is one example of a shiny object in my life. I am constantly watching to see what they may be up to; which is rather silly because it is pretty much the same thing all day. Chirp, chew up food, spit the food in the other bird’s mouth, sleep. When I take the time to think about it, which I do, their lives are a lot like mine. Chirp, chew, spit, sleep – not necessarily in that order.

It is nice to watch Father Finch stop by every now and again for a little feeding and courtship. Turns out their courtship is much like humans. The male will tease the female with his bill – touching her bill if he is interested. Then, he’ll provide her the best bits of food his bill can bring. At this point, the ball (or in this case, bill) is in her court. If she is good at mimicking a hungry, young chick, he’ll feed her. This exchange reminds me of so many of my first and, in some cases, last dates.

I’ve spent several hours gathering photo and video footage of the Finch family. As a result, I have a whole new respect for BBC Nature, Discovery, Animal Planet and PBS. Holding the camera steady while waiting for activity and, when activity actually happens, having a good song playing in the background – so as to reduce editing hours – is a lot of work. After a couple of attempts at footage, I decided to head to the library. Chirp. Chew. Spit. Check out stuff. Sleep.

As I was walking toward the library I was approached by a man, probably in his late 40s, who was walking a dog. “Wanna see something crazy?” he asked me.” “Sure,” I replied without hesitation. Shiny objects, shiny objects. While I was following him I started thinking, “Manhunter. Horrific movie. Great soundtrack. I wonder if the library has it….shitfuckdamn, this may not end well – which means I’m going to end up with a late fee on this DVD set. Chirp. Chew. Spit. File a police report. Pay library fines. Sleep.”

Then, I saw crazy. His dog had found a nest of goose eggs, about ten of them, resting next to a large daylily. After I took a picture and thanked him for sharing this with me, he made an observation. “I was just thinking how strange what I said may have sounded.” “Yeah, I thought that too. But I don’t think it is any more strange than me taking you up on the offer.”

It was at this point that I went my own way. Even though he was also into shiny objects, I wasn’t ready for him to touch my bill or spit in my mouth.