A Reason to Smile

You know, sometimes things just make you smile!  I find more happy things here on the Bayou.  Mundane little things that most folks would just pass on by without ever noticing..I notice.  Down near the pier, there is a wide expanse of marsh grass.  In this marsh, many critters make their homes..some in the mud, some on high knolls and some even hanging in the marsh grass itself.  One such "hanger" is the Red-winged Blackbird.  The small bird weaves together all sorts of sticks, grasses and leaves.  This is all suspended from a number of stiff reeds of marsh grass.  The inside of the nest is then plastered with mud and once it is dry, the nest becomes quite secure.  After the drying stage, she finds the softest grasses available and lines the mud cup.  By the time she is finished, the nest will be a sturdy home about seven inches in diameter.  It is here, swaying in the breeze, that she will lay her bluish-gray eggs that have black markings.  All this while, the male is sitting watch.  Rarely does he do too much to help her other than offering an occasional twig.  It is his job to stand guard against any intruding males that might take a shine to the wife.  After a couple of weeks, the eggs hatch into clumsy, buff-colored, blind babies.

Once those babies are hatched, the males job suddenly intensifies!  Now, not only does he have to stand guard against any predators, he has to hustle about hunting a ready food supply.  This is no deadbeat dad!  He can be seen feeding those young'uns with the best of them!  Even in nature, the importance of dad is there.  After all, any male bird can be a father..it takes a special one to be a dad..ok..so that is not exactly how the saying goes but it applies.  I sat on the pier watching, watching...hoping to spy the little blackbird that was chirping in the marsh.  Sure enough, after just a short wait, a little head popped up in the marsh!  There was my baby!  It was practically underneath the pier!  Soon, the daddy bird started making all sorts of ruckus in the nearby oak tree. He had seen me and I was a bit too close to his baby.  He swooped at me nearly smacking me right in the head!  With all of his racket, other blackbirds soon took up the cause and started screeching at me.  Swoop!  I ducked!  Swoop!  I was not leaving without my picture!  I sat still..just watching that baby bird!  It had frozen on its marsh perch.  The alarm raised by the dad had alerted it to the danger present!  I sat....still.  Not moving, not making any effort to attack the little one.  I am supposing that the dad soon realized that I was not trying to catch four and twenty blackbirds for a pie so he soon calmed a bit.  All this time, I wondered just where was the mother????  It was then that I realized that she was perched on a dead tree trunk just behind me ready to dive bomb me if necessary!  Whew!  I was certainly glad that they decided that I was friendly!

Soon, the parent birds took up their duties and fed that little one!  They were within a few feet of me and after the initial uproar, never once acted a bit skittish to have me so near.  The little one started hopping from grass to grass and the parents even came to sit on the pier.  I was accepted!