Bird Brains

Ya'll knows Aunty Belle feeds birds...I was urged to do so by a sister and our mother, but it took a wee one to put me on the bird path.

One day a two year old sat transfixed watching birds eat from a back yard feeder. "Boo (blue) bird!" Her wonderment shamed me...I see this view each morning while standing at the sink making that first cup 'o java, early when the rest of the house is still quiet. Though seasons bring new visitors to the feeder, and despite the mysterious relationship of one species to another, I've pretty much ignored the drama of bird life in my own backyard.

I'm reformed now. Today I'ma shreddin' apple for the brown thrashers who eat mostly worms and berries, turning up they beaks at the seeds preferred by jays and cardinals. Leftover popcorn caused blue-black crows to swoop and startle our regular bullies--the blue jays. Not to be too cutsey, but there is an observable peckin' order 'round heah.

Not content to settle for the simplicity of "boo bird" or red, I watch the bird psycholgy unfold.
Ain't it jes' like on ole' biddy to see in the birds a question for us'uns?

Do them jays ever wish't they's crows? Do they experience envy? Do crows ever wonder why no other birds will eat wif em'? How come the dove ain't a 'feared of that raucous jay family? And why is daddy cardinal so solicitous for his lady? Do any of these bird brains ever wonder about the meaning of existence of the other creatures?

Ya'll reckon Mister Mocking Bird ever shakes a feather heavenward and demands to know why they's cats in this here world?

Birds is busy being birds....following out the natural plan of bird-dom. They don't have brains that demand "why?" or "what if...?". They doan seem to question why they's any injustice, or suffering, or why the spring was unusually warm and pleasant, or even why they's a bird feeder full of easy pickin's.

A son is certain his Labrador does think on a higher plane--and I thinks I agree wif that idea. They's a heirarchy of being-ness that cain't be readily denied. Looky--even PETA folks doan wail an' moan when they drivin' doan the road an' they tires smush worms or ants..but hit a puppy and most of us is shaken up. When praying mantis eats aphids they's no aphid society demanding "rigths" for aphids....but spikes in the head of seals in Canada is repulsive, as Bawgs has tole us...an' he's right. They's an observable hierarchy in nature. Higher life forms "know" they's alive, they's aware of their "being-ness" and that knowing is part of its existence.

But knowing also brings questions. I've even seen a poor ole' dog be "embarrassed" when it's aged body betrayed its training and piddle appears on the floor--the poor ole pup was ashamed, sorry it failed its human friend. Higher forms of life have emotions to go wif all the questions.

This is why Ole' Aunty Belle is jes' amazed when some folks insist that humans have no greater right to existence than any other species...they's a hierarchy of being-ness...it's jes' natural, ain't it?