Maybe it is a "Mom Thing"...

  Due to a furniture move, my computer is now placed near the windows overlooking the Bayou.  I love it as it gives me a chance to enjoy the breeze coming off the Bay while catching up with my kids via the internet.  For the past few weeks, I have had a nightly visitor.  Just about dark, a lone mockingbird flies in, lands on the window screen and chirps softly at me.  I know the bird can see me as I am not but an arm's length from the screen.  Since the bird has instigated the nightly visit, I join in on the conversation.  We chat for a while and as darkness falls, the bird moves to the rose arbor to roost for the night.  It is there that the bird can rest easy in the relative safety that the rose thorns provide. 

  A few years back, I raised two orphaned mockingbirds and released them in the yard.  While most folks find the birds annoying with their nightly singing or bossiness, I enjoy them.  Perhaps this love was brought on merely by the fact that I was "Mom" for a summer or perhaps it is a throwback to my Mom.  She was one who had trouble sleeping at night and would spend hours listening to the mockingbird outside the window.  Mom was always musically talented and spent this time counting the different "verses" in the mockingbird's song.  She never tired of the nightly serenade nor do I. This evening the bird came once again.  I so longed to photograph her but was afraid that the camera might spook her.  I do not want to scare her from coming each night so I refrained. When she left, I noticed a tiny, wispy feather stuck to the screen.  This is evidence enough that she comes. 

  My visiting mockingbird is obviously a female.  She does not sing the loud, almost obnoxious, trilling of the males.  She, more or less, murmurs her conversation with me.  If there was any noise whatsoever in the house, I most likely miss her altogether.  I sit in silence just to commune with my friend all the while pondering if this could possibly be one of the babies...my babies...from a few years ago.  I fostered the birds back in 2011 but mockingbirds can live a long time.  Shelby (the female) learned to sing a lot sooner than her brother, Knox.  Her song then was more of a warble...soft, slow and calming.  The bird that comes to visit has the same song.  Could it be?  Could this be Shelby? I like to think it is.  Sweet Shelby.  Sweet, sweet Shelby.  You bring back memories...memories of little birds and of my mom.  It cannot get much better than that.