Life of Birds

Birds and dogs love me. Dunno why. Perhaps they sense that I will do them no harm - except maybe for the one mutt on campus I can't tolerate, whom I WILL harm if he starts his nonsense just one more time...

This morning I was drinking coffee in the early sun rays on the verandah and watching my favourite pigeon peck at bird seed on the path a mere 2 metres from me. I can move, I can talk (and I do, to it!) - it stays, unflinching, listening. There's a turtle dove that likes to doze on a nearby fence pole if I'm sitting still in the garden. It trusts me enough to go to sleep in my presence. One shrike (or it's decendent) has hung around for about 6 years now, and will land nearly at my feet to pick up a morsel or an insect. The bulbuls come by for their daily bath, spraying torrents of water in glistening showers every which way, unbothered by us enjoying their antics.

Heck - even my mom's galah (parrot) loves me! It took to me immediately the last time we saw it and wouldn't leave me alone!

This morning a new bird appeared in the garden, a Boubou. The usual avian visitors know me, this one didn't. However she landed on a plant a half-metre away and sat there looking at me, unafraid. She hung around a bit on the lawn (the shrike bombed her for invading territory), picked up a caterpillar, pecked at a bread crust, jumped in the mulberry tree a bit. I don't think we've seen the last of her (I checked - it's an adult female, by it's markings).

Encounters like that amaze me. How wild things can trust and come so close, knowing that there are certain humans who will do them no harm. I love being trusted that fully by God's creatures. It's an incredible feeling!