I was looking out the back windows of my home that
overlook the San Fernando Valley . It was a bright and sunny day--sunny enough
that my younger Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Mystie’s tail was wagging
constantly. She loves sunny spots and
shadows and will watch them for hours.
This time, as I stared out the window, I saw a
large bird’s shadow move across the branches and leaves of nearby trees, but I
didn’t see the bird. The same thing
happened again only a minute or so later.
Same bird? Maybe, if it was
flying in circles. It must have been
flying over my house, with the sun shining at an angle that cast the shadow
visibly, even though I never did see the actual bird.
I found the sight, and illusion, fascinating. I’ve also been watching some interesting
interplay between birds out the same windows this week. There are two hawks, presumably a male and
female, who perch on the tops of nearby power poles and tree branches, not
together but sometimes facing one another.
They appear calm and in charge and utterly uncompromising. This is important because, as they remain
there so serenely, crows have been buzz-bombing them. The crows circle and zoom in, sometimes as a
flock, sometimes individually, as if they’re insisting that the hawks leave,
that this is their territory. The hawks
ignore them as if they weren’t even there, let alone attacking them.
I’ve been studying the birds and their actions,
wondering how I could incorporate them into a story. I’m not writing about birds, at least not
currently, but I could certainly analogize their personalities and interactions
into differences in humans.
The hawks are like people who know who they are and
what they want. Who have goals (like
finding the right rodent to sweep down on and eat?) and will let nothing stand
in their way to achieving them.
The crows are... say, I just realized they’re like
the media. Paparazzi! They’ll fly and flutter to divert attention,
to get a story by creating their own. By
attacking, at least figuratively when it comes to humans, those who are secure
in themselves and who don’t want to be bothered.
Then there was the determined and diligent hummingbird I also saw yesterday taking its nectar from some flowers on a bush outside a local post office today. Hovering and intriguing, a hard worker but lovely and fun to watch.
Do you ever analogize the actions of other animals
to those of humans? Heck, I do it all
the time with my dogs... and now I’m doing it with birds, too!
