Meanderings, Baby Birds and Commonsense...

  While out in the gardens or roaming the marsh lines, I observe.  It seems that is what I do best. I am a watcher of sorts.  I investigate everything...plants, critters, weather...whatever catches my eye.  Mostly, I watch critters.  The animals around the Bayou have not flourished as they have by being stupid or ignorant.  (And, yes, there is a difference.  Look it up.)  People of the world should take note.  Animals are smart. They know how to take care of themselves and don't go whining about their lot in life.  The tiniest mouse has just as good of a life as the huge alligator.  Neither are up in arms about the other.  People are not so smart.

  Today as I piddled in the gardens, I could hear a family of blackbirds as they came up from the marsh to get a bite to eat at the feeders.  I was pondering why it took them so long to make the 300 ft flight but then I realized that they were coaxing their young along the route.  The parent birds were not only encouraging their young to fly but were teaching them where they could find a free meal at times.  The mama blackbird would fly to a tree and call to the little ones.  Once they made it to the tree, she would do a short flight to another branch.  Never did she let them actually reach her until they were finally at the feeder.  Then, she and the papa bird pecked furiously at the seeds.  The little ones peeped, fluttered their wings and begged to be fed.  Mama and Papa pretended not to hear but kept pecking at the seeds.  It was only a short time before the little ones got the idea and tried to mimic their parents.  The lessons were a success.  Baby birds only have a couple of weeks to learn the ropes to being an adult bird.  Flying, finding food, finding shelter are all lessons that need to be mastered before the mama bird takes to the nest again.  It is this way with most critters. Very few spend more than a couple of weeks or, at best, a few months caring for their young.  It seems that humans and elephants are just about the only ones who baby their young for any length of time.  

  It got me to pondering a lot of things watching the birds today.  It has not been that long ago that human kids were put to work at an early age.  Families depended upon it.  If you were able to toddle at all, chores were assigned and were expected to be completed.  Maybe that's what is wrong with society today.  Kids are mollycoddled too much for too long.  They become dependent, lazy and have a "me" attitude.  They expect to have everything handed to them or they pitch a fit just like the little birds at the feeder.  Gimme!  Gimme!  Gimme!  Thankfully, those parents had commonsense.  They led their brood to the feeders and expected them to start feeding themselves.  No more handouts!  That, my friends, is commonsense teaching.  That, my friends, is what is lacking nowadays.  No one thinks for themselves anymore.  'Nuff said.