quidnovis61

Saturday. First it was the alarm clock at 6 a.m. I slammed it down (hard!) and then twenty mins later piik piiiik piiik … A sharp persistent almost metallic ‘pik-pik-pik’ sound. On and on and on. I groaned, turned around and snuggled down to sleep but piiiik piik piiiiik…. And then piiiiiiiiik piiiik…. I got up and decided to “investigate” this new sound in my garden just outside the window… armed with my Canon of course, bleary eyed from sleep and barely able to focus. (Thank god for autofocus).

To my amazement it was the same bird I had seen the day before and had been wondering what it was…The New Bird on the Block. I had never seen one before and certainly not in my garden…. Down came my bird book from the book shelf and the search for Blackie started… He looks COOL! Like an undercover FBI agent in black suit, white double breasted shirt and groovy sunglasses…

Agent Seeley Booth move over, here comes Agent Blackie. Yeeeah, piiiik piik piiiik….








Agent Blackie as it turned out is a Pied flycatcher (L: Ficedula hypoleuca/ Swedish: svartvit flugsnappare).

Blackie continued with his high pitched call all thru my morning coffee. Little did I realise I was in the midst of a veritable Musical stage performance that would put Andrew Lloyd Weber to shame… it had all the ingredients necessary for a box office hit. Beautiful and varied settings, perfect lighting, comedy, drama, action, jealousy, fights, social problems, tragedy in true Shakespearean style, enchanting music by the great Maestro himself and of course, a love story…. And I got the best stall tickets for this performance. Front row!

The scene opened with Blackie doing his hysterical wing-flapping piik piiiik piiik call shattering the quiet morning – which, in all fairness, turned into a melodious high-pitched warble when he smartly sailed into the apple tree in the late morning.

(In the coniferous bush)

Blackie’s loud, melodious song is characteristic of oak woods in spring and altho we don’t have any oaks here in our village he was quite content with my apple tree (just in bloom, buzzing with bees, the pink and white flowers that never cease to amaze me) and the coniferous trees. And he flew back and forth from the coniferous trees to the nest box to the apple tree to the charcoal grill to the white garden seat and all the way back again and again and again…piik piik pik

(MY APPLE TREE IN BLOOM)


(Blackie in the nest box)


(Blackie in the apple tree)


(Blackie on the grill)



(Blackie in his daft sunglasses on the white garden chair)

Now here comes the “drama, action, jealousy, fights”-part. Just sitting in the Sun Lounge, camera in hand I learn a lot about the denizens of the Kingdom of Aves as the years roll by and the shifting seasons. Yesterday, I tell you, was no exception.

As you will remember from my blog - Cottage for Rent….it was rented out to Mr and Mrs Blau. We kept seeing Mr Blau going back and forth and we were thrilled that they had returned!

(Mr Blau in the Nest box, guarding...)

And now Blackie turned up one morning and turned the world of Aves upside down in my little corner of the garden with this spectacular Musical-show.

As I watched an entire story slowly came to life.

Mr Blau and Blackie were at loggerheads with one another. I thought they were just cute puffy little things flying about in the beautiful Swedish spring… but oh no! A grim tale of tragedy and territorial jealousy was to unfold right before my eyes and Canon lens.

Blackie would piiiiiik piik piiiiiiiiik and the quiet owlish looking Mr Blau would go to attack protecting his cottage. And for nearly six hours they fought. And then I saw Blackie actually go IN to the Cottage. Oh my goodness I thought! How did he dare? What ever would Mrs Blau have to say about strange men visiting her unannounced? And then the fighting (Mr Blau and Blackie) would start again….and I finally realised that Blackie too was looking for a HOME! And he had found one! In our garden! And HE WANTED IT! And he wanted it badly…!

   

  
(Do you hear the drum rolls? Do you hear the grim eerie music from Jaws?
Mr Blau is keeping a stern eye on the intruder))

I had my morning coffee in my front row seat.

I had my breakfast sandwiches there

I had my mid morning coffee there

I had my lunch of cold meats and olives there….

And I watched – enthralled at the drama unfolding before me.

Blackie has returned to Sweden with his other mates after wintering in Africa. According to what I have read, flycatchers migrate to the Gulf of Guinea (September to April) making stopovers in northern Italy and in Spain! (Smart birds huh? Escaping the Scandinavian winter….) I even had to look up Google Earth to see the exact location of this gulf...it is surrounded by exotic countries like Ghana, Nigeria, Congo Gabon and so on…Imagine! From there to my garden! And now he needed a summer home….that was the entire thing. And unfortunately the house he wanted was “occupied”. Now the “social aspect” of this Musical comes… now I can understand how it is for young students (for example) who move to university towns to study and there is a paucity of housing and no where to live! How one “hunts and fights”.
But I sincerely hope our young students don’t barge into someone’s house scaring the Missus and demanding rooms!!!

  




Well our young Agent Blackie was not about to give up. His forays into the cottage and his subsequent aerial and ground fights with Mr Blau gave me a clear picture of the extent of his liking for Cranberry cottage. Mr Blau jealously guarded his cottage and would fight aggressively at every chance he got. I sat bemused at his strong male instincts and feelings.

To protect and to serve.

It was at once beautiful, absolutely amusing and comical to see two tiny fluffy male birds squabbling quarrelling garrulously fighting for a house! A domain.

And Blackie still didn’t give up…! His high pitched piiik piiiiik piiiiiiiiiik and his beautiful warble, Mr Blau’s rather deeper si si siiii sisi filled the world with beauty. I can understand how Shelley was charmed by the skylark, “Hail to thee, blithe Spirit”….how Beethoven, Vivaldi, Wagner were all inspired by birdsong and have used it in their compositions.

And then the full impact of a tragedy hit me straight between the eyes…

WHERE WAS MRS BLAU?

Mr Blau had not once flown inside/into the nestbox…. Mrs Blau had never come out… I had once heard noises inside the box just a few weeks ago… but where was she? Were their baby birds inside? Why wasn’t Mr Blau bringing food like last year? Why were there no sounds? Why was he just flying there and keeping a cautious vigilant eye on the nest box? I felt a strange sense of sad panic.

In the Interval I rushed in and got my stethoscope and tried to listen from outside the walls but not a sound! WHAT HAS HAPPENED? Has Mrs Blau flown away? Has she fallen prey to a cat? Has she died? Are there eggs inside? Is Mr Blau waiting for her not knowing what uncertain fate has befallen her? WHERE IS SHE?

I still don’t know ….Nature is not to be interfered with. Unless in dire need like giving food to wild animals during harsh winters or water in the hot summers. There are “rules” in Nature that is beyond our comprehension…. It is best left alone….

Like all dramas/plays/stories/sagas/musicals and indeed in life itself there is a sense of tragedy. Grief to be endured, tears to be shed… And yes, just like in the paradox of Life itself - whether it is in the avian world or ours – life has a tendency to go on even after abrupt ends. We the protagonists of our lives are in despair and yet circumstances force us to carry on even after tragic calamities and disasters pounce. Over and over again.

Was (is) the nest box now empty? Is that why Blackie dared to fly in/enter?

His warble had attracted Belinda a beautiful young female flycatcher, pale brown and soft eyes, she is a beauty! The music hits a crescendo.

(The birch tree in the garden)



Answering his persistent mating call she came, sailing thru the gossamer-green birch trees and sat on the branches of the coniferous bush for a long time along with Blackie. Were they discussing the new cottage?


    


Finally she decided to fly into the box for an inspection.

 

Ohhhh…..Would she like the décor? Would she be happy with the wallpaper? Will she settle here with her young’uns? Was the residential area good enough to raise her kids? Was it a safe place? (Yeah, women are kinda funny about such things….) Any way Blackie must have liked what he saw considering all the fights he had to endure…

---------------------

And so the Musical came to an end with a love story of Blackie and Beautiful Belinda…. And like all good musicals (Ask Messrs Benny Anderson, Andrew Lloyd Weber et al.) this had all the ingredients for a box office hit. Tears Laughter Dialogue Music. And…. Love.
A new day will come and we will see where and how this saga will end.

As of now, Hello, Micheal Bublé:

Birds flying high
You know how I feel
Sun in the sky
You know how I feel
Breeze  driftin' on by
You know how I feel
It's a new dawn
It's a new day
It's a new life
For me
And I'm feeling good

 Please click on the link below or copy/paste

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYe6tmrFxbw&feature=related


Signing off for now....
CS