It depends how you look at it, I guess.
Yesterday, I spent the entire afternoon rocking back and forth on the glider, sipping bottled water, and keeping an eye on the little ones. As I watched baby Catherine toddle across the lawn to join the merry party on the swings, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye--a blackish gray bird carrying a relatively large object in its beak. Peering upward to get a better look, I could see that it was one of our Catbirds with a crumpled plastic cup, the same type of all-purpose cup we used to make May Baskets and catch tadpoles. Alighting briefly on the tall chain link tennis fence, the bird seemed to get a better hold of his burden, but he flitted off before I could get much more than a glimpse of him with his odd baggage.
I sat there wondering what the Catbird would be doing with a plastic cup, unable to think of how such an item might be useful in a nest. Crows, I know, are great collectors and especially favor shiny objects, but this type of behavior in Catbirds was a new discovery for me. Fifteen minutes passed, and I had almost ceased to wonder, when there he was again, back on the tall fence, still grasping the cup in his evidently strong beak. This time, even I could not remain seated. I rose to investigate, tiptoeing round the front of our enormous backyard "Christmas" tree that is home to so many birds (kinglets and catbirds, robins and possibly orioles) to get as close a look as possible.
In spite of his unwieldy bundle, the nimble bird beat me to the back of the tree, sailing down from the fence and underneath its lowest branches. When he flew up again, I could see that he had deposited the cup somewhere at the base of the tree.
This photo shows what I found tucked away under the tree in a solitary part of the yard even the children rarely penetrate--an empty Poland Spring water bottle, a cardboard pretzel box in a brand we have never purchased, and the battered plastic cup deposited by the Catbird. (Most likely it had been left outside by one of the children after an afternoon of tadpole-ing by the temporary pond.)
Now, I ask you, is our Catbird a "Felix Unger" spending his days tidying and secreting odd bits of refuse to prevent them from defacing the natural beauty of the yard, or is he "Oscar Madison" squirreling away junk and clutter to keep near his nest? What do you think?
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Eight year old Margaret took two pictures of our fastidious bird (or is he our hoarder bird?) today.
Here he is resting on a forgotten old bench directly in front of his strange stockpile:
Here he peers down from his favorite chain link perch. I always thought he was keeping an eye out for worms, but now I am guessing he may be doing a bit of junk collecting as well:
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And, for your viewing pleasure, something completely unrelated by Margaret: A Bee in the Foxgloves.
