Our Visiting Mockingbirds 

     Each spring at least one husband and wife (mockingbirds mate for life) make a nest in a hedge beside our house. The hedge is six feet high. On May 11 or 12, our daughter snapped a picture of a nest with four eggs. Normally - it's any number from 2 to 6 eggs. She also recorded songs the male (most likely) was singing from atop a pole. 

     The male (probably) chooses the nest site and builds several foundations. The female chooses one to finish lining. (You women - don't get any ideas) The nest may include twigs, grass, leaves, trash, plastic, aluminum foil or cigarette filters. Creative, these birds.

     One day last week the eggs hatched. The incubation is 12 or 13 days, and the nestling likewise. That's where we are today. 

     So, Mrs. Donut and I sit at our kitchen table and watch a mockingbird fly into the hedge at the exact same entry, every time, about a foot below the top. We assume he or she delivers food. Within seconds the adult flies out from the top and zips into the trees in our small woods. 

     In no time, somehow, the bird has found food, and returns to the nest. The shortest turnaround has been about two minutes. Speaking of kids, these birds begin the nestling blind and helpless. 

     Mockingbirds will sit and sing (over 200 songs to choose from) atop anything. On the ground they walk, run and hop. Males will perch on houses or poles, leap and flutter down. Trouble? Males will confront males and females...females. And humans. 

     They may have two or three nests in a season. One female laid 27 eggs in one season. 

     If you hear sounds like machinery, frogs, toads and other kinds of birds, it all may be coming from a mockingbird.  

     Amazing nature reminds us God is real, creation is his handiwork, and mockingbirds are just one of many examples of his brilliance.  

                Jimmy

 Tomorrow: ignorant protesters