Hiking Buddy

   My days here on the Bayou usually wrap around several hikes.  Chores take up most of the day but there is never too much needing done that I cannot take a quick jaunt to the back creek or along the marsh edge.  These hikes are more of a "sanity keeper" than anything else.  I need to feel that connection with the Bayou, itself.  So, I meander wherever the calling takes me.  

  More oft than not, a single mockingbird will meander with me. The bird usually will stay just a few feet from me while hopping from shrub to shrub.  The thickets provide it plenty of places to feel comfortable yet near.  It watches my every move...my every step, yet, does not seem to have great fear.  Several times during my thrice daily walks, the bird will chirp as if trying to tell me something.  I ponder.  I wonder what it would say if we could communicate.

  I also ponder if this is either Knox or Shelby.  Those were the two baby mockingbirds that I raised after the parent birds were killed.  Those two came back to visit for several years.  Now, this single bird follows me.  Is it one of them? Can birds have long term memory?  Would it even recall the relationship we had after so many years?  So many questions go unanswered.  Still, the bird seems to have great interest in me and, of course, I do the same.  The mockingbird and I have an ongoing friendship.  I welcome that.