Fuss about Finches
Noticing life - thanks to intruders
It’s funny how July always brings me reminders of the inexorable passage and time. Perhaps because this is the beginning of the second half of the year or perhaps because it’s my little butterfly’s birth month? This year even more so as that butterfly - my not-so-little-one-anymore - exits her teen years! Where did the time go? The oldest cliche of all time perhaps, yet one we fail to pay sufficient attention to. Time is not just a precious commodity - it is the ONLY currency of life. Time lost in anger, guilt, fear and mindless accumulation (not to be confused with mindful ambition to create and build as in many inventors, innovators, risk-taking entrepreneurs we owe so much to) is time forever lost. It is the throwing away of the stuff of life. Think of it as a futile shortening of our lives. We pay lip service to overcoming this foolishness and then settle back in our ways as if time won’t catch up with us. We all fail miserably at living wisely at different times and I don’t pretend to be any kind of exception. The point is to get up, dust off and turn our mind’s attention to the beauty of this wildly impossible here-and-now that we somehow came to have.
A wise mentor once told my husband, “The only real purpose of life is to grow in wisdom and grace”. Simple - AND profound. Yet I see people my age - over the hill, so to speak :-) - and even older, purposefully seeking out the short end of this bargain, time and again. And I see young people who should be full of hope, ambition, energy parading around in misplaced rage ready to tear down more than they want to build; and sadly somehow the more privileged, the greater their contempt for even what’s good. No wonder anxiety and depression rates among the young continue to soar.
But I digress. What I really want to talk about is — birds!
Yes, birds. Who knew I would even pay attention to these creatures but sometimes certain beings arrive in our lives and demand that we take notice. And then we comply because such forces arrive with greater power than our more lofty diversions. So here I am writing about birds, specifically Finches, but even that discovery came much later.
Last year in July we noticed that every time we opened our front door an exasperated bird flew away. We puzzled over this strange commotion for a few days only to discover that a nest had been built on the wreath on the door! And our use of the front door was causing much consternation to the interloper. I promptly put a sign on the door, telling everyone not to come that way, and we started to use the garage and garden gate to exit and enter the house. This went on for several days but our curiosity about the bird and her nest was threatening to overpower when we discovered that the peephole in the front door provided a rather convenient vantage point. From the racket her arrival caused we also knew when she came and went. One day when I knew she was gone, I gingerly opened the front door to check out the progress of this enterprise. And lo and behold...the nest had four blue, spotted eggs! Yes, blue! I still had no idea about the type of bird she was.
She came and went and soon enough the eggs were hatched and multiple, daily feedings led to quite the ruckus at the door. Here’s a video of a clamorous feeding we witnessed through our front door peephole! Within a couple of weeks the little ones were grown and flown and we got our door back. We all felt a little sad. Even Dishoom (our dog, who’s curious and wicked enough that we would not trust him anywhere near the nest) smacked his lips and looked disappointed. And the mess they left behind, I very gently cleaned out, never once touching the nest. Perhaps a hopeful gesture asking them to come calling again. Touched by this display of trust (how I chose to take it - self-aggrandizing perhaps :-) ), I wrote this tiny ditty for my fellow mama...
Little Nest
She made a little nest on the wreath on my door
When, how or why this came about I'll never know
Leaving her precious ones in my care
Somehow she knows a mother lives here...
—
reena / july 27th 2020
Fast forward to 2021 and sure enough they were back - and this time at least five of them! The first one arrived in April and took over once again the wreath on the front door. Was it the same one, I wondered aloud on Instagram?
And then a couple of months later several more alighted to build in the backyard. One nest was on my profusely flowering Clematis vine - quite precariously no more than 5 feet off the ground! And in several perches along a trellis in the front yard. One evening dear friends came over for dinner and one of them had the Audubon Society bird guide app and he promptly identified the birds from their noisy tweets and red-headed good looks as Red Finches or House Finches of California (aka Haemorhous mexicanus).
Since then has ensued a longer affair with several of these creatures. My delight at being “chosen” again (I know!), the humor of their exacting ways and curiosity at their diligent endeavors has been delightful. And so many questions arose… How did they know to come back? And where from? What did they think as they evaluated our home? Was there a conference of finches where we were in competition vs. other candidate homes, all unbeknownst to us? I am sure ornithologists and researchers in the field could help me with the answers (apparently finches do take over old nests left intact). But for now simply the sense of wonder and whimsy they evoked is reward enough.
And so here’s a poem I wrote as an ode to this beautiful entanglement that made me stop and notice!
Fuss about Finches
I see them watching me, sometimes they boldly stare
Then turn away and confer in heavy, hushed tones
If I try to get close they shift away, annoyed
Lithe and light on their airy, fairy bones
*
“Does she bite or hunt?”, they ask out loud, so rudely
No pretense that they are discussing my humble candidacy
“This is her territory…” they do acknowledge reluctantly
I sit. I listen. Never offering any previous history.
*
I am being watched, judged and appraised
For days this blunt conference convenes
Soon they are fetching twigs and leaves
Judiciously laying their routes & routines
*
And one day in the garden much flutter is reported
My vines are alive with shuffles, chirps and tweets
When I enter soft-footed as to not cause commotion
Three of them hurry off, exasperated on their beat
*
Handsfree I peep gingerly to share in the excitement
Sturdy nests of seamstress precision are clearly in prep
Then quiet for several days, nothing, not a sound
And one bright morning...Viola! We have four blue eggs?!!
*
I observe from a distance with the mothers standing guard
Joining them unbeknownst in their worry and their wait
Suddenly they are hatched! Dainty, ugly little ones
No resemblance to the casings - precious blue, piebald eggs!
*
“The fun and games are done, little lives are now at stake!”
The moms start to scold me from nearby wires and trees
Dishoom and I quietly withdraw, not a word we exchange
“Nothing to see here! Move along, will you please?”
*
Every day several times the moms fetch their feed
One of them is close by, and I note her frequency
At her hurried descent hourly, the nest comes alive
Cacophony of hunger, “please mommy, me me me!”
*
As the nest gets fuller with four plumping young
All heads, eyes and beaks, seem poor candidates for flight
Then one day they are gone, just grown, upped and flown
Red-headed mommy knew best, fattened them until just right
*
Sometimes I wonder how they came to decide,
My garden was the place,
To build their nests and raise their young
And reward me with their grace?
*
Abandoned nests I’ve left intact in a wild act of hope,
Remembering...
The Red Finch from last year who built hers on our front door
Perhaps she told her sisters, “...This home is rather safe...
They were curious as cats, but mostly left us alone!”
—
reena / July 19th 2021
Most of the finches are gone now and the summer carries on but frivolous butterflies, bossy hummingbirds and cotton-tailed rabbits in my garden keep me tethered to the here and now. Write to me and tell me if any of this resonates with you. And about your own encounters with feisty, demanding creatures that made you notice life itself.
Extra…
Worth you while is the new blockbuster film Black Widow. I am no Marvel fan but was persuaded by my hubby and daughter - both avid fans - who would like me to be educated at least to the point where I can tell the difference between Marvel and DC heroes. Not happening anytime soon. But I went, mostly because child is here for the summer - as my dear hubby reminded me. And I did enjoy it tremendously. Emotional story of two sisters and well told. Wonders never cease!
Extra, Extra…
A hilariously funny, irreverent yet touching book (memoir-ish?) I recently read and do highly recommend: The Bad Muslim Discount by Syed M. Masood. It’s based in our very own bay area and will make you laugh out loud - and perhaps cry too.
Fabulous! Couldn't stop reading!!!
Lovely!! I love birds! I totally relate to their chatter and convenes in hushed harried tones! Oh these human creatures are such an exasperation!! :D