Birds and Other Things

 Tonight Ray and I watched The Birds, the old movie about rabid birds attacking the citizens of the California town Bodega Bay (somehow I always thought the movie took place in New England. Maybe because it’s another fishing town). It did not disappoint and we stayed glued to the plot line the whole time, ingesting all the dialogue. It gave me a break from the blog (yet here I am again…). I ate a piece of vanilla cake with blue icing, snacked on a bowl of popcorn, and drank a sweet red fruit punch, the powered kind from a packet. We paused the movie twice to go outside for a smoke. We made it three quarters through the movie. You could call it a perfect night. I’ve got a soft spot for old movies and snacks and cigarettes. Call me old fashioned. 

You may not believe this, but this morning I actually found a dead bird on our porch. The blackbird variety, with a shiny purple, green sheen on its tail. I got John to come retrieve it. He placed it in the river. What are the odds of that happening? Big odds, because we have a lot of cats; I’m sure the bird was a victim to one of them, I don’t know which. I don’t like that this happens but I can’t do anything about it: it’s the Call of the Wild. Usually it’s the small birds I find dead, the brown baby birds; this one was a larger prize. I can’t accept these gifts, but I can’t chastise them either. The best you can do is turn the other cheek. 

John has been catching mullet recently, as it’s mullet season again. I’ve been sleeping in so I haven’t been around for this sport. I like watching it happen, I suppose cause my life isn’t very exciting, so I follow a man with a fishing net. One dead beautiful bird bothers me, yet I can deal with the capture of dozens of fish, why is this? Fisherman use these mullet as bait all year round, this Im aware of. The bird, however, was not supposed to meet this fate, they should fly away from their predators. Their wings are their salvation. 

Anyways, I brought up the mullet because John likes to feed them to the egrets. He had one faithful friend years ago that he fed many fish to. After the hurricane that bird disappeared. There’s other egrets that hang around on the river and figure out what he is up to. It’s a nice gesture. Reminds me of the pelicans by the charter fishing boats waiting for scraps. We all have to eat, birds and fish and cats and people. 

I’m reminded of a quote from one of my favorite movies, Ever After. Danielle asks Leonardo “A bird may love a fish, but where would they live?” And he replies “then I shall make you wings.” (Just lovely).

Some creatures fly and some creature swim and some creatures write.

I can’t wait to finish our movie tomorrow.