Bird Psychoses

We have had some strange bird moments here on the ol' homestead. For example, for quite a few Summers in a row, we had a turkey that would peck on our basement windows, likely at his own reflection. Peck, peck, peck, bang, bang, bang. At sunrise on a Summer morning. Over and over and over. And over. He's not been around for a couple of years, so either he got smarter or he got to be dinner. Either way, yay.

Today, there was a small bird that kept flying at our windows. These windows are pretty high up on the North facing wall of our living room, above our French door that leads out onto our deck. Every once in a great while, a bird will fly directly into one of these windows, then fall down onto the deck either stunned or dead. This probably happens once or twice each year. The bird today was fluttering around the windows, only gently hitting against them. I think he thought it was an entrance to somewhere. Bonk, bonk, flutter, flutter, bonk. Off and on all day. He hasn't done it for a couple of hours, but he was just back at it again when I started this post. Hello. Fifty zillion bonks, you think he'd figure out, it ain't happenin'. Initially, I was intrigued.

But then after a bit, I realized that between bonking sessions, he was landing on the top of our patio table umbrella. Then I saw the umbrella finial was covered in bird shit. Ummm... not real happy about that. Bonk, bonk, bonk, flutter, bonk, bonk. It was getting annoying.

But then... I finally saw him. He's an Eastern Bluebird!!! I love bluebirds, and they are very, very rare around our area. We've lived on this property now for 20 years, and this is only the 2nd bluebird I've seen here. He's a beauty! Bonk all you want, bluebird! (Just please don't kill yourself.)