{"id":4695,"date":"2019-05-20T09:18:33","date_gmt":"2019-05-20T07:18:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/?p=4695"},"modified":"2019-06-17T07:35:22","modified_gmt":"2019-06-17T05:35:22","slug":"birds-at-the-gate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/?p=4695","title":{"rendered":"Birds at the Gate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The B Monster is standing up at the kitchen window, paws pressed against it, she is looking out and chirping. I peek out to see two magpies sitting on our outside window sill. The cat is beside herself with excitement. So close. The magpies seem to be conversing and the cat\u2019s chirps seem to play in counterpoint with the birds\u2019 chatter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the magpies nods his head and the cat steps away from\nthe window. She saunters to her food bowl and sits down to a midday snack. The birds\nfly away. Strange, I think, that all seemed oddly coordinated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve always loved birds. But seriously, what\u2019s not to love\nabout animals that fly around, build houses with their faces, and sing for you as\nyou walk by? Nothing. They\u2019re also neatly patterned and pretty smart. Some\nbirds have been proven to employ tools to construct homes or to open things\nlike nuts. I could not and cannot accurately wrap my head around the complexity\nof these beings\u2019 social order, their signaling system, or their abilities to\nfly in patterns with a hundred other birds. To varying extents, explanations\nfor these things still elude scientists. But I can observe and enjoy.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though I am in no way an ornithologist, I have enjoyed observation\nof our flying buddies. This mostly occurred in my last flat, where I would\nwatch with fascination the interactions within the magpie community from my\nporch. This interaction included what were almost certainly battles, as groups and\ncouples of magpies would chase around other groups aggressively chirping and\nshouting at each other. I would stand on the porch holding the B Monster as\nstill as possible as she stared with impossible intensity. When we moved in\nMarch, there was the sadness of leaving behind a neighborhood of animals and\nsounds and trees and things we were used to.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

In the summer at my parents\u2019 house, I walked into my room\n(the library) and noted with alarm that a robin was running around on the\nfloor. Obviously it had managed to get inside. It was clearly distressed and I\ntried to soothe it with a placating voice as I took the screen out of the\nwindow and urged him to fly away. He did and stood on the roof outside for a\nfew minutes, I\u2019d like to think, thanking me for the help. I saluted him, a\nthing to which he responded by pooping and then flying away. It was a special\nmoment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when the magpies come back, this time to our back window,\nthe B Monster is again waiting for them. She is tensed, staring, but not\nchirping. She\u2019s listening. Now I know that if the glass window was not in\nbetween her and these birds that she would eat them like her own little bucket\nof KFC. But as it stands she\u2019s just observing. I wonder if she\u2019s comparing them\nto the old neighborhood\u2019s magpies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I, for one, am getting a little uncomfortable. These guys\nare ending up at my windows a bit more than they used to and I don\u2019t know\nexactly what that means. Who knows where people can stow a camera these days?\nMaybe these birds are acting as someone\u2019s animalistic drones. Or worse, maybe\nthey\u2019re not. Maybe instead of me observing them, the opposite is occurring.\nMagpies are intelligent animals. They can feel emotion, they remember people,\nand they are supposed to be little thieves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh my Dog. It dawns on me: they\u2019re watching me. And the cat\nis their inside guy. They are all talking. Is she selling me down the river? What\nhave they promised her? I can offer more, so much more. I pull the curtains closed\nand sit facing the window. Come on, I think, you\u2019re being paranoid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the kitchen I pour a glass of milk and make a sandwich. It\u2019s\nraining, not a bird in the sky. The clouds are black at 3 pm, and I feel a\nlittle comfort. On the road, there\u2019s movement. After checking for traffic (both\nways) three ducks cross the street towards my building. There are no ponds\naround here. There are no rivers. Dammit. The ducks are in on it too. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The B Monster is standing up at the kitchen window, paws pressed against it, she is looking out and chirping. I peek out to see two magpies sitting on our outside window sill. The cat is beside herself with excitement. So close. The magpies seem to be conversing and the cat\u2019s chirps seem to play […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4696,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/damiengaleone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/magpie.png?fit=958%2C657&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EvEu-1dJ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4695"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4697,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4695\/revisions\/4697"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}