And Now for the Real Viral Post … Maybe… Whatever… I Think It’s Kinda Neat at Least…

I teased this deal Sunday. Teasing is something I learned to do in my years in the radio biz. “Coming up next …. “; “Stay tuned for …”; “Thursday at 7:20 …”

I’ve been out of radio since somewhere between 1996 and 2012 (depending on your definition of “out,” but all that’s for another post, I suppose ) so I forgot that I don’t like doing teases. They almost always end up being annoying for the typical listener/reader. The event hardly ever lives up to the hype. And, sometimes, the tease doesn’t do justice to the event.

Based on some preliminary conversations I’ve had since Monday, I’m sorta guessing this will be the former. I am now doubting this deal is as sure a bet to go “viral” as I’d suggested.

Mockingbirds are pretty common and boring, afterall.

Oh, did I just spoil the punchline already?

Sorry, ya’ll. Geez.

Alas, you guessed it. The “bit of intrigue” I found in my Sago Palm last week was a nest of Northern Mockingbird eggs.

A couple of neighbors out walking by the tree this week seemed, well, a little bored by that news. Mama Mockingbird had just fluttered away, so I told them it was probably safe to go take a look. They weren’t rude, of course. But they didn’t take a look.

Sigh.

And then my dear mother spent about 15 minutes of our daily phone call telling me how much she wished mockingbirds would go somewhere besides her yard to lay their eggs.

“They end up getting poop all over the ground, and it’s just not very nice to look at in my yard,” she said. “Besides, they just kind of look like a bird. Nothing all that interesting.”

The good news is Mom stopped short of calling them nuisances. Well, her exact words were, “I don’t guess they’re necessarily a nuisance, but …”

Sigh…

Yes, I realize mockingbirds are a dime-a-dozen and maybe not overly exciting. But I still think my little discovery is neat. Here’s my picture, for whatever it’s worth. (I really wish I could have gotten a better angle. I’m a writer, not a photographer. Still working on my skills — and my equipment. )

I took the photo on March 26, and, not that anyone really cares, there’s an egg missing these days. I have no idea what happened to the third, but there’s definitely been only two eggs in the nest since Saturday.

So, there lies one bit of the intrigue I mentioned, boring as mockingbirds may be. And that’s just the start of the drama I plan to follow in these posts over the next couple of weeks or so, whether ya’ll are interested or not. Ha!

I’m only just now learning mocking bird basics, but even a beginner can pick up that these eggs are in trouble. I’m really pulling for these (hopefully) future mockingbird babies to flap happily away from our tree. (And I’m not just saying that because I can’t wait to get back in there to finish my trimming job and then plant some Periwinkles around the bush. But I am excited about that, nevertheless.)

I had no idea this blessed little nest was in the bush when I started trimming. Here’s one of my “before” pictures featuring the apparently boring nest resting deeply within those branches that are way too long. It’s just right-of-center, near the top of the picture. But I only know that because, well, I’m the guy who almost chopped it up. Trust me, you won’t see it. And all those cats and racoons who prance around our yard every night probably wouldn’t have seen it either. Papa Mockingbird did a great job scouting out a perfect spot for his new family. But that’s all changed now.

I wish I could apologize directly to Papa. My handiwork cost his great nest almost all of its protection. The beautifully designed home is now clearly visible from the street you see in the picture. That’s why I was surprised to see Mama Mockingbird back at work in the nest just a couple of hours after I put my job on hold. After all the destruction I’d perpetrated upon on her property, I figured she’d become a ghost.

Alas, I discovered this brave lady was still on the job only because she fluttered away when I was within 30 feet of her, on the way to get another peak at the nest. And that scene has repeated itself four or five times since then. I take it as a bit of a miracle that, at some point in the midst of all my harassment, she managed to lay that third egg (which, on a sad note, may be the one now missing).

So now … here we are… Our great, potentially boring, Mockingbird Saga is now in a waiting game for the next few days, and I’m hereby vowing regular updates, no matter whether they go viral. So ya’ll get ready, I guess. Or not. Ha!

According to the mockingbird basics published by groups like the Audobon Society, the two remaining eggs are due to start hatching, by my guess, sometime around this weekend (April 4-5). Incubation is 12-13 days, they say, assuming Brave Mama keeps coming back to the precarious nest, and my guess is the two eggs I saw first had been there no more than a day or two. So that puts the beginning of incubation at around March 24, I’d say. (Hey, wait. What if these babies end up sharing my own birthday, April 10? Ha! Outside chance I suppose, but I think it won’t hurt to put in a little prayer request for that, huh? I know God can certainly make that happen if its in His Will. )

Careful readers will note that I am at least a day or so late in bringing you this post. (One sentence in my previous post semi-promised another post in at least “a couple of days.” That was Sunday. It’s now Wednesday. Sigh…) The delay is mostly because I’ve been reading a lot about mockingbirds of late and have noted at least a dozen trails I can pursue in writing about my little discovery. And, for a couple of days, I’ve been struggling to decide which of those trails to follow. This a common frustration for writers. We English teachers have even given it a name: the “writing process.”

The good news is I’ve been consulting God in this process, and, while I was inclined to just cram a little bit about each of the dozen trails into one long post (just for the sake of getting something online so you, dear reader, wouldn’t be able to accuse me of making false promises), He kept telling me to calm down and stay patient and prayerful.

“YOU set that deadline for yourself, not Me. So don’t fret. YOU will tell this blessed story in a blessed way,” I kept hearing him assure me. So that’s what I’ve done. I’m not even going to apologize for being late with this post. I’ve (mostly) given up my habit of co-dependence, thanks be to God. Ha!

(To be clear, when I say I “hear” from God, I’m not saying His voice booms audibly to me as, say, it probably did for Moses, or King David, or Apostle Paul or many other Biblical figures. I will DEFINITELY let you know, blatantly, if that ever occurs for me. But, for now, please know my “hearing” of God comes as a feeling that I know is in agreement with His word in scripture. In this case, the corresponding scripture is this: “Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.” — Ecclesiastes 7:8.)

It’s through my prayer — and reading — that I have managed to see that the mockingbird life, as observed and reported by experts, has much to teach us humans. The blessed story goes like this — repeated, by God’s great design, millions of times each year all across our world: Daddy Mockingbird finds a secure spot and builds the foundation for his family’s nest; Mama Mockingbird arrives and establishes a nurturing interior for the nest before settling in for her crucial role in incubation; the eggs hatch, and Daddy returns to his nest to help Mama feed and protect the babies until they are able to leave the nest; and, finally, the babies crawl out of the nest but still flail around the vicinity for a few days until they learn to fly away.

Read 1 Corinthians 5-6, particularly 5:21 – 6:4, with all that in mind, and see if you agree with me that mockingbirds might be great role models for Godly families. While I wait for more to report on the status of the blessedly boring eggs in my front yard, I’ll be working on one or two posts in which I expand on that idea. Uh oh! I’m probably going to get a little Biblical on you in the next post or two, and you may or may not end up agreeing. Either way, that’s okay. I’m really looking forward to some spirit-filled discussions in the comments section of my posts as I get going (again) with regular posts.

And, in the meantime, I pray some of ya’ll reading this might use some of your COVID 19 inspired downtime to get out and see what’s interesting (or even a little boring), wildlife wise, in your own yard. Once you find something, take some pictures and post them on ProjectNoah.com, a cool site I discovered while seeing what the Internet has to say about mockingbirds and their eggs. Once you’ve got your pictures on that site, be sure to post a link in my comments section, so the rest of us reading it can go take a look and give you some encouragement for your efforts. I am now Don13, an official Project Noah spotter, and my eggs are now available for the world to see at www.projectnoah.org/spottings/622239019 . It only took me five minutes to set up my account and post about these eggs, and two or three of the Project Noah “rangers” have already popped on with some encouraging commentary about the eggs. In fact, I’m now off to take one of the ranger’s suggestions that I post my pictures in the site’s special section devoted to “animal architecture.” A few days ago, I noted a couple of regular ole’ (but impressive!) spider webs on my back patio that might be good for that section, too. Thankfully, I didn’t tear them down or anything. (Though I can’t vouch for the cats and racoons that hang out back there a lot.)

See ya’ll when there’s something shaking with these eggs (or maybe sooner, who knows. Remember, please don’t take too much stock in my teases).

Some of the cool links consulted in the making of this post

https://www.thespruce.com/northern-mockingbird-profile-387262 — Nice information on mockingbird basics

https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/northern-mockingbird — More nice information on mockingbird basics

https://books.google.com/books?id=lbKaCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT110hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false — Link to a cool-looking biography (that I have not yet read, but now have on my list) about Mr. Rogers. The Land of Make Believe featured a pet mockingbird, of course.

https://txtbba.tamu.edu/species-accounts/northern-mockingbird/ — More nice information on mockingbirds, from a bit of a Texas perspective.

https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/622239019 — My above mentioned spotting on Project Noah