Have you driven by the Dublin Citizen office early on a weekday and seen either Cindy or myself sprinkling seed in the parking lot?
Rest assured, it’s not from insanity or a desire to grow hardier plants under the asphalt. We are feeding the transient bird population that flocks to our office every day.
Legend tells that Cindy started the practice of feeding them in the parking lot. I can remember wondering why when I first noticed it but the birds seems to find it quickly so I guess it works. There are others like Sara Gann, a former ad seller for the paper, who wasn’t as accepting of the morning ritual.
She had a black compact car she dubbed Nightwing and the birds loved to gather in Nightwing’s shadow (and wheel wells and hood) after a filling breakfast. She would try to protect Nightwing from getting pooped on by tapping on the glass.
Tap tap tap. “Stay away from him!,” I would hear from the other side of the office wall.
When that didn’t work, she would run to the door nearest our vehicles and scream. Once again, I assure you this was birds—not insanity.
The shock would send the bird flyings away.... for approximately 90 seconds.
We aren’t the only ones feeding the birds on our pavement. For what seems like years now, someone gets a breakfast croissant at Dublin Donuts next door and throws one half of the bread to the birds. There are usually four or five playing tug-of-war with it when we arrive in the morning. The battle usually ends quickly when a grackle enters the fray.
Since we’ve been feeding our feathered friends for over a decade now, you might expect they’d be a little tamer or used to us. Somehow, they trust us enough to willingly eat everything we put down but not enough to be within five feet of them.
Thus, the seed goes down every morning. Birds waiting nearby fly right by the window as the feeder goes back to the kitchen to put up the cup. Five seconds later, we pass by said window and the startled birds fly in every direction. This happens 5 or 10 times per day.
We also feed birds at our home which has resulted in a pair that have been forced to trust Wyndi and I. There is a hanging plant three to four feet from our back door that apparently was the perfect place for a sparrow nest.
This has made it fun to water the plant because we had to do it from the other side without disturbing the nest or the four chicks growing in it. The mother mostly bolted off the nest when we opened the door but she was tired enough some nights to just sit and stare... INTENTLY STARE.
Wyndi had never seen baby birds before so upon her first glimpse of the blind, pink somewhat feathered things, she said: “Awww, they’re so ugly.”
They toe the line between ugly and cute. They also have visible pouches where we can see they’re getting enough seed so maybe that’s why the mother didn’t go into Alfred Hitchcock mode and try to peck or claw our faces off.
We first noticed the nest on June 2 with the babies hatching mid-month. They’ve grown quick since then and I stepped out Sunday morning to see one lone bird in the nest still sporting the tell-tale tufts on the side of its head (like Larry in the Three Stooges) to show it was young.
It flung itself from the nest and headed to the ground before abruptly pulling up and as I followed its path, I watched it land on a wire by its parents and siblings who were probably glad to be moving on from their nosy neighbors.
I’ve been told bird watching and feeding is an old man’s pasttime, but I’ve always liked it. Maybe it’s because my mom raised (some very loud) finches and canaries, and birds are comfortingly familiar. I also really like birds as a reminder of all the life God has put on our planet. They’ll fly into our path briefly and then take off, maybe to a local nest, maybe to migrate into another state or country.
The world is much bigger than us. Each moment can bring something or someone into our path for a short time. What we make of that is on us.
— Paul Gaudette is the Managing Editor for The Dublin Citizen and can be reached at publisher@dublincitizen.com.