Last summer, when I watched a robber fly catch, stun, and suck the life out of a hummingbird moth I had been following for half an hour, my friend Jill (a trained entomologist) said, "Eat or be eaten."
Well, yes.
But the law of the food chain doesn't make it any easier not to care.
This morning, for instance.
At about 8 AM, I finally got up from the computer to feed the birds, who had eaten an entire tube of seed yesterday. As I was hanging the suet and sunflower seed feeders (I have to bring them in every evening; otherwise, the raccoons steal and destroy them), the chicadees and nuthatches and titmice chitted and chatted, as if to say Hurry up! What's your problem? We've been waiting for breakfast!
They make me laugh, my greedy feeder birds. I've been thinking a lot about birds lately, because of Betsy's gift (she so loved sitting on my deck watching them), because of the red-winged blackbirds falling in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Kentucky, and because of an article I read about their truly awesome ability to fly.
When I'm feeling tired or blue, I just look out the study window and realize that fighting against their comradeship is pointless.
Now if I could just learn to chit . . .
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