Pigeon Parade

I have fed birds in my backyard
for years. Any bird that’s hungry
is welcome to stop by for a meal,
and my yard is visited regularly
by cardinals, blue jays, robins,
thrashers, wrens, doves (ring-necked
and mourning), woodpeckers,
assorted blackbirds, hordes of sparrows,
with rare finches just migrating through.
I even have hummingbirds each summer.
My reward is a yard full of activity
and beautifully colored birds to watch.
It’s a fair trade – food for entertainment.

In recent years my neighborhood has
changed into shopping centers where
cotton fields were…concrete replacing
green fields. With the acres of cement
has come the prototypical city bird.
Yep, the nasty, ugly pigeon that infests
downtowns across America, commonly
regarded as an undesirable nuisance.
At first, one showed up, then a few more,
and now a whole flock comes at a time.
I regretted their coming at first. Why did
pigeons have to invade my backyard?

It’s been a few months now, and I’ve started
to enjoy their presence more. Pigeons display
an assortment of colorings, from tan and white
to light gray, to deep, dark black, and many
have fluorescent neck feathers that shine
in the bright sunlight. And pigeons perform!
Other birds fly or maybe hop across the lawn.
Pigeons leisurely stroll as if on a walk through
the park on a Sunday outing of olden times.
Why fly when you can get to the next feeder
by walking? As ground feeders, they are quite
comfortable keeping their big bodies grounded.

Today I watched a lusty male pigeon,
his chest puffed up and his head bobbing,
marching after a coy female who was giving
him a cold shoulder. They paraded in tandem
all over the yard, him strutting his heart out
to please her, but to no avail. Off she flew,
leaving him to his misery. Like any other
rejected male, he took it hard…until another
likely female caught his attention. Then his
strutting parade began anew. There must be
a valuable life lesson in here somewhere.


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