Minding my own business, I idly look up to see the my majestic neighbor out for his evening foray to the seafront He recently has two annoying children who frolic and show off and make a racket, so usually he flutters further south from the garden and hunts in solitude and safety with the assurance of the very elegant and the very agile. I wish I could say that for myself these days.
So – here he is, doing what he does best but, ALWAYS being followed, headbutted, poked and squawked at by his tiniest of annoyances. There are one or two or them at all times, chasing him down, swooping down on his perch when he takes a break to watch for movement in the bushes. He is a Black Hawk, he must weigh 5 lbs, he is almost two feet tall on his perch and probably 4 feet across his wing span. His colouring is subtle with brown and black stripes across his wings which make him just look a bit untidy when he is sitting, but glorious on the wing.
The tiny dude is a Mockingbird, noisy, wild, brave and tenacious. They are about 6 inches high with a longer than average fan tail and he is black and grey. Not special to look at really but once you start to see his antics, he is always entertaining. For whatever reason he is permanently angry at the hawk. He wont let him sit quietly, he zooms his perch on the tops of buildings during the day and sits just outside of pecking distance from him and yells and screeches. When the hawk takes off the mockingbird is like some mental boxer gone mad, zipping about throwing random punches and screaming his head off. Completely off his head.
A couple of months ago, my dog was in the yard, munching grass like the goat he isn’t. I heard him yelp so I popped out to see what happened, and he was looking up at the sky as if something had hit him over the head – coconut maybe? Not a bit of it – one of these loonatic mockingbirds was picking on him. Swirling around his head about 8 feet up, diving at his head with its mouth open and pecking at his head. Neither of us could believe it – the dog is looking at me as if to say, this is so unfair. When I got him upstairs he literally had little gashes in his head from the loonatics’ pecking injuries.
At a friends pool there is an oleander next to it and I could see a couple of these mockingbirds tending a nest. Nice and quiet for a change. Very grown up – one collects the bits and bobs for the nest and the other one nudges it into it’s perfect place. The next time I visit there were a couple of mouthy little wannabees in the nest using their enviable lungs to screech their wishes to the grown ups. Along comes the hotel cat. Harmless, and he even has a bell to stop him getting birds. And boy did the grown ups go nuts. It took a while but they chased this cat off the patio and off the pool deck entirely and wouldn’t shut up till he was completely out of site. He had a couple of injuries from these guys too.
So – this is a tale of warning – if you weigh 65lb or less watch out for these little loonies!
Corner Casa - Caye Caulker 