The Mockingbird

Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. 

They don’t eat up people’s gardens, 

don’t nest in corncribs. 

They don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. 

That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird. 

~ Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

I love mockingbirds. I love their ubiquity. I love their territorial nature. I love their dances. And I love their song.

Okay. I also love to "rile them up." If you copy their song, they will get into a singing contest. It can get pretty crazy. Eventually they create some wild and impossible song and the terrible human will realize they are done - and leave the competition. I'm only disgraced if I give up too early.

It may be a sin (and illegal) to kill one, but it's fun to tease them.

Here I will save photos and tales of mockingbirds I have seen - just so I have a place to save the stories and honor this little grey bird as I purge old photos and gather new ones.

1-26-20 -- This little bird seemed to disappear into a small Live Oak tree along Witter Lane. I wonder if it  is the same bird that serenaded me yesterday. I wonder if it thinks I do not know it is there - hiding in the sparse leaves.

If it can see me, I can see it. 

On Shallow Ford Road West 1-30-20. 

February 11, 2020 on Shallow Ford Road -- It was a hazy day. there was a little bit of a breeze. The mocker was none too friendly.

So I waited to see if I would get any kind of a shot.

And in the end I was happy with these three shots.