and so...
it seems I have received a promotion in life, except it's not one where I get any money or anything fun like that. No, apparently I have crossed some magical line of 'enough time spent outside in the garden', and have received a promotion from the local birds, moving me from the status of 'icky, potentially skeery thing, best avoided' to 'large, neutral animal, means no harm.' The same lofty status cows enjoy, in other words.
What this means functionally, is that they've stopped avoiding me. Normally, I kind of like looking at birds, so it's pleasant when I can see one up close. Well, now that they aren't hopping away from me, it's actually kind of weird. Because birds are three dimensional creatures, they're now also okay with all the space around my head. The first few times I got these low flyovers I thought they were dive-bombing me, but they weren't. They just aren't avoiding me anymore, so if I'm next to their line of flight, they don't change it. When I'm doing something under a low branched tree, they'll just do the flyover thing right above my head and chill out on a branch four or five feet from my head while I do what ever I'm doing.
Yesterday, when I was picking raspberries a female hummingbird lighted right above my head on the piece of fence supporting the berries. I looked up, and she looked down at me, cocking her head, only a few feet from mine, and then just went about her business preening herself and acting like I wasn't the least bit concerning to her. They do this on the porch, too. They land on the railing so close it's a little surprising for some reason. I have a sense of what distance I'm used to having with these birds, and now suddenly it's getting all violated. Mostly by the jays, starlings and hummingbirds. I don't dislike it, it's just really odd somehow. Like our space-violating roles have been reversed.
I told this to my mom, who I keep asking for gardening advice. She seemed totally nonplussed. 'Have they started landing on you yet?' she asked. LANDING ON ME??? THEY DO THAT??? I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF THIS. But she seemed to think it was normal. 'Oh yeah, hummingbirds will,' she says. 'Right on your head. Hummingbirds and jays.'
Sometimes I wonder about what my mom thinks is normal.
What this means functionally, is that they've stopped avoiding me. Normally, I kind of like looking at birds, so it's pleasant when I can see one up close. Well, now that they aren't hopping away from me, it's actually kind of weird. Because birds are three dimensional creatures, they're now also okay with all the space around my head. The first few times I got these low flyovers I thought they were dive-bombing me, but they weren't. They just aren't avoiding me anymore, so if I'm next to their line of flight, they don't change it. When I'm doing something under a low branched tree, they'll just do the flyover thing right above my head and chill out on a branch four or five feet from my head while I do what ever I'm doing.
Yesterday, when I was picking raspberries a female hummingbird lighted right above my head on the piece of fence supporting the berries. I looked up, and she looked down at me, cocking her head, only a few feet from mine, and then just went about her business preening herself and acting like I wasn't the least bit concerning to her. They do this on the porch, too. They land on the railing so close it's a little surprising for some reason. I have a sense of what distance I'm used to having with these birds, and now suddenly it's getting all violated. Mostly by the jays, starlings and hummingbirds. I don't dislike it, it's just really odd somehow. Like our space-violating roles have been reversed.
I told this to my mom, who I keep asking for gardening advice. She seemed totally nonplussed. 'Have they started landing on you yet?' she asked. LANDING ON ME??? THEY DO THAT??? I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF THIS. But she seemed to think it was normal. 'Oh yeah, hummingbirds will,' she says. 'Right on your head. Hummingbirds and jays.'
Sometimes I wonder about what my mom thinks is normal.