The Villain

  "Uh uh, Uh uh!"  Someone was denying a fact even before they were accused.  To me, that automatically suggests guilt.  Perhaps I am being hasty in my judgement here but it seems to me that those who yell the loudest are sometimes the guiltiest.  Why go to all of the trouble of being in denial if you are not as guilty as sin?!  "Uh uh! Uh uh!"....once again the phrase was heard making me even more sure of my thoughts.

  This denial was coming from the tall pine tree back behind the shed.  All of the smaller songbirds were in a tizzy making it clear that something nefarious was underfoot...or above head...which seemed more likely.  That familiar noise was the cawing of a crow and its presence was causing a major uproar among my songbird community. What I have been blaming solely on the small Screech Owl may be due to none other than the visiting crows.  "Uh uh!"  Once again, the crow denied knowing anything about the nest raids and the missing eggs and baby birds.  

  I was just about to go "Grandmother" on the crow and start banging on my pie tin when the smaller  birds took things in their own hands...errr....talons...errr...whatever.  The ruckus drummed up by the woodpeckers, cardinals and wrens brought in the fighting forces of red-winged blackbirds.  These are fighter pilots with the best of them.  It did not take long of the five or six smaller blackbirds bombarding the crow to make it vacate the premises!  The rest of songbirds remained quite atwitter as they checked their nests.  Perhaps in all of that chirping, twittering, tweeting a few word of thanks should have been directed toward the red-winged blackbirds who merely went back to their own nests as if the deed was nothing special.  Wouldn't it be great if we humans could find it in our hearts to do good for our communities without expecting to be rewarded.  Good job, red-winged blackbirds! You are brave beyond compare and I salute you!

  The referral to going "Grandmother" was due to my maternal grandmother's habit of grabbing her metal pie pan whenever she needed to frighten off any predator.  Whether it be crows, a pack of wild dogs or a few wild hogs, this was her "weapon" of choice.  There was one time, however, that the pie tin failed her and a pack of wild dogs was attacking the lone pet dog so she grabbed the rifle and let loose on the dogs. Good part was that the pack of dogs scooted towards the woods...bad part was that she was standing on the screened porch at the time she shot.  Granddaddy never let her forget that by showing everyone the telltale holes in the screen...but he always ended his story with how proud he was of her for rescuing the poor pup!  Oh, Grandmother!  I miss you!