Black Birds

We have an arbor over an outside porch with three different kinds of vines growing on it. For some reason, these vines never bear their flowers at the same time, and all of the flowers are of the kind that open in the morning and are lying dead on the ground before lunch.  They are also thickest at the top, where the gardener can not reach to trim them, and very scraggly at the sides, where there is no need to trim them.

Every year around this time a black bird couple makes a nest within the branches of the top of the vines, and eventually baby birds would be hatched, fed, weaned and then fly away.  This year the word must have gone out that the rates in this particular maternity hospital are cheap because we have at least five nests going at the same time.  A few days ago I think there was even a christening party because when I went outside to wet my plants there were about 30 blackbirds all lined up on the electrical wire that runs along the wall outside of my house, and on the top of the wall itself. They were making a hell of a racket but at least there was no loud music or alcohol involved in the festivities.

Since the influx of my new visitors, I have learned a lot of things about black birds.  The first is that they shit a lot.  Every morning at 7 o'clock I hose down the porch and get the rid of their droppings and all the dead leaves and twigs that they discard during their nest building.  At 5:00 p.m. I do it all again and you would never believe that I had cleaned that porch just a few hours before.  The second thing I have learned is that they are very territorial - and it does not matter if the territory is not theirs, they are still going to dive bomb you every time you get near to their nest.  They even dive bomb the dogs who retaliate with snapping jaws that have never connected to anything other that air.  The third thing that I have discovered is that their songs are surprisingly varied - I don't know what the different calls mean, but there is a whole range of pitches, sounds and combinations that I am sure translates into whole conversations to them.  The only one I can readily understand is "There she is again!  Get her!!  Aim for the head, the head, the head!!!  Yayyyy - bullseye!!!"