Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Ornithological observation


I think I’m being stalked by birds - or is that ‘storked’? Must’ve been watching too many Hitchcock reruns.
Apart from the ubiquitous blackbird – he’s still here by the way - reader(s) if any will remember my incident in Villefranche with the seagull who tried to hitch a ride with me on a 737. I’ve been physically attacked by a magpie and published an article on Charlie Parker.
NOW a huge raven has made his home in our gutter, right above the bedroom window, so that when he gets home he blocks out the light for an instant as he lands. (No, he doesn’t say ’Doors to manual’.)
The guy pictured came pecking at the window one morning, - a literary bird who knew his Poe: ‘While I nodded, gently napping, suddenly there came a tapping’. But he wasn’t your aggressive ‘Hey, open up’, Woody Woodpecker-type tapper; more an apologetic, ‘excuse me’ type of pecker (that’s in the English, not American, sense of the term). He would peck away – you can see the marks on the window – for about ten minutes, then, when we didn’t take any notice (which we couldn’t because that window doesn’t open) would go away and come back at the same time next day. He kept this up for several weeks, then left as mysteriously as he arrived. We didn’t even know who he was. Then, a couple of Christmases ago, DG and I accidentally gave each other the same presents: a book on British birds. So we looked him up twice. And it turns out he wasn’t even a ‘he’, but a young female chaffinch. But what did she want?
Maybe she wanted to fix me a date with Tippi Hedren.

It looks as if football is going to win in the end. Who would have thought that a Germany v. Italy semi-final with no goals for 120 minutes would be the best game so far – or that Italy would win it? So mixed loyalties for tonight: the theory that most cup-winning teams start badly and improve (unlike England who started badly and deteriorated) certainly seems to apply to France. But they are such poor winners – they’re still calling themselves world champions from their 1998 win, so will be unbearable if they win this. But I’d hate even more for the diving divas from Portugal to win. So it has to be Italy v. France for the final - or so a little bird told me.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

You don't think the chaffinch knew her Poe well enough to have foreseen the raven's nest and was trying to warn you about it in advance? There's too many connections there, right from the quote to teh chaffinch to the raven moving in and blocking the sun.
Bet you did that on purpose.

Anonymous said...

You don't think the chaffinch knew her Poe well enough to have foreseen the raven's nest and was trying to warn you about it in advance? There's too many connections there, right from the quote to teh chaffinch to the raven moving in and blocking the sun.
Bet you did that on purpose.

writer's moll said...

Very good Ed. Hadn't thought of it - a sort of feathered Blind Pugh, cane tap-tapping his way along the quay handing out Black Spots. And it looked so cute!

writer's moll said...

hey, just because I said RW could borrow my computer doesn't mean he can leave his comment under my name. I never said that Ed.

Anonymous said...

Not to worry, WM. it wasn't a BAD thing he said, was it?

Anonymous said...

Well now you're switching up on me, unless you're living on Treasure Island. Why would the poor chacffinch be trying to summon you to something?