Sing a song of six pence a pocket full of rye
Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie
When the pie was opened the birds began to sing
Wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the king?
You finish it. I know you learned it as a child. This ancient poem speaks of much more than pies and parlors and hanging out the clothes. I am not writing about the poem. I am writing about the blackbirds.
As you know I watch birds for a hobby. This is a great season for it in Rockport, Texas. Food helps to bring birds to a backyard. Water helps even more. I have sunflower seed out for a morsel for these little creatures. Yesterday a single blackbird quietly approached my feeding station. He eased down and began to eat. Soon there were three more. Then ten. Then four and twenty and many more! They eat like....well blackbirds! Like there will never be another meal. I would like to accomodate them on that possibility. Blackbird pie anyone? These blackbirds actually are more than one color. They are red-winged blackbirds. They won't be here forever like the pesky house sparrow. That is the good news. The bad news is that between these guys and a couple of squirrels the other birds don't have a chance. Sometimes a low flying sharp-shinned or cooper's hawk is a welcome sight. He will probably pick off a dumb mourning dove instead. Anyway, it all goes with birding and with life. You take the bad with the good, the blackbirds with the rose-breasted grosbeaks. Send in the grosbeaks!
Your birding Bible lesson for today is this one. Deuteronomy 14:11-18. " All clean birds you may eat. But these you shall not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the buzzard, the red kite, the falcon, and the kites after their kinds; every raven after it's kind; the ostrich, the short-eared owl, the sea gull, and the hawk after their kinds; the little owl, the screech owl, the white owl, the jackdaw, the carrion vulture, the fisher owl, the stork, the heron after it's kind, and the hoopoe and the bat." .Woops, I have bad news pie-eaters. A jackdaw is a blackbird. Scratch the black-bird pie from the menu!