Mockingbird Wars

It’s that time of year.  War has broken out in my yard again and it is being waged on two fronts.  The first and very noisy front is the war between the rival mockingbird males whose territory meets at the fence line between my yard and the neighbors.  For the better part of the year they are neighborly to one another, but as they say,  “All’s fair in love and war”, so now that the SECOND round of nesting is under way (yes, my New England friends, here in TX the birds are already, as of early June, on their SECOND batch!), the males are going at it.

It’s easy to tell when a assault is under way, even if I am not in that part of the yard.  The constant “Name that Tune” song of the male switches suddenly into super scold mode and high speed chases ensue, one male driving the interloper out of his territory with maneuvers that would make the Blue Angels proud.

 If you are foolish enough, as I certainly am, to see what the ruckus is about, watch your head.  Last week I decided to go down for a closer look and nearly got hit upside the head by the bird being driven out.  But isn’t it always amazing, that even though clearly I wasn’t their focus of attention, yet I was somehow still on their radar for, at the last minute, he swerved up and over me and a crash was avoided.  Impressive.

The other front to this war is the one I am, once again, losing badly. The “Who can pick or peck the peaches first” war, or plums, or apples.  This house came with fruit trees, not the most bountiful trees and I am not sure why that is.  Is it my lack of gardening expertise?  Maybe not enough water, but whatever, we are never talking about a bumper crop.  So, sadly, there is not enough to share peacefully with one another. 

This year I actually thought these rather non-stop wars between the males would keep their mind off the fruit, but that was wishful thinking.  The plums were coming along nicely, getting red, soon to be purple and I was holding my breath, maybe they would let them be.  But dive-bombing each other sure works up an appetite, so this past weekend, they had at it, and I was forced to gather the rest, still a bit green to finish ripening on the counter.  And we are only talking one bowl of gathered fruit; they once again enjoyed the bulk of the bounty.  To the victor go the spoils.

Now, because I never learn, and also because I know a peach really doesn’t ripen well if picked too green, I am presently hoping, no doubt in vain, that they will leave the peaches alone just a day or two longer. I will be holding my breath as I walk down there this morning to see if the fruit is  on the branch or on the ground.   I really should net the trees, but many have grown too large, an admission of a timid pruner.

 Ah well, back East our supermarket chain had a slogan “Strive for Five” meaning 5 fruits and veggies a day, so I should just accept and embrace even, that I am helping this generation of mockingbirds “Strive for Five”, so that they would be in tip-top shape for the aerial battles that are bound to continue.  Your welcome birds, I hope you enjoy them.