Silver Moon Learning

Jun. 10, 2009

Bird Whisperer?

Justice has become quite the birder this year. We used a science book that was mainly about birds for awhile. He learned tons, biology, reproduction, habitats, different types of nests. Words like mandible, tarsus, cormorant, and retrices became daily vocabulary for awhile. When we see a new one he'll start calling something like, "Tall crest, dark nape... did you see the color of his throat?" When we get home it's straight to the Usborne bird guide. Last time we went camping he busted his dad on a jay. Hub said, "Blue Jay." Justice said, "I'm not so sure, Dad." When we got home it was, "Ah ha! That was no Blue Jay. Blue Jays don't have crests. What we saw was a STELLER JAY." All that rambling to get to today. My window as open to the backyard. When I stopped to really listen to the sounds I was hearing, Justice was chatting with a bird. The bird would tweet. Justice would whistle. The bird would tweet back. Justice would tweet high and shrill. The bird tweeted higher. Justice whistled normal. The bird simply tweeted back. Justice made a loud, low caw sort of call. Bird, no joke, matched his tone, and called back to him. This went on for a good ten minutes. I stepped outside to see a smiling Justice nudge towards the neighbor's roof. At the top of the roof sat a small, plain looking bird. Brown or gray, slim body. No good identifying marks could be seen from that distance. I went back in and called Joy out to see the bird conversation, she's going through that bird book now. Honor overheard me telling her what was going on and rushed outside too. Soon all of us were outside watching. Bird didn't seem to mind and kept right on chatting with Justice. It didn't end until Justice tired of chatting. Later this evening the same bird sat on another neighbor's roof, looking down into our backyard and singing. Justice and I heard him about the same time. Justice popped his head out of the backdoor and nodded, "Yup, that's him."

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