At Dusk.....

February 22, 2012

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The Farmer and I were driving around the other night...headed to a birthday dinner for
a sweet nephew.  The nephew had chosen Chinese food...yes...in Mexico...and suprisingly
we do have one little place that is pretty darn good.  So the legend in these parts is that the
cook, at the yummy Chinese food place...had actually been a cook at Panda Express in the
United States...but...sadly...was deported back to Mexico.  Sad...only for him...and pretty
happy for all of us in Mexico...who enjoy a little Chinese food from time to time;)
So, while driving to the restaurant we passed the "big park" which is in the city center, and
directly in front of the "big church"...all of this is typical to most any city that you might
visit in Mexico.  On Summer evenings the park is filled with families....
people exercising....and sometimes a large event, or carnival.
 Right now the park is just filled with birds!!
The sun was setting as we were driving by...and the birds were beginning to roost for the night.
I have never seen anything quite like it!  The birds are black with yellow on their chests.
They travel in very large groups, trying to find the perfect tree to spend the night.  It was such
an impressive sight that The Farmer pulled over and just watched those birds...and then told me
to take some pictures.   Well...I didn't have my camera...so he took a few with his phone. 
The Farmer has a great eye when it comes to photography and he is a gifted painter....so
whatever pictures he takes are great!...And this time was no different....It takes me hundreds of
pictures to come up with a few I am happy with...he on the other had sees it and captures it with
only two or three shots.....I hate it  when that happens!!!!;)  Once again The Farmer has done it....
with terrible lighting....and only an iPhone....he captured a pretty incredible moment!
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The Farmer says the birds have always been here...he has memories from waaaaaayyyyy back about those birds.  They are a piece of life around here.  While I was thinking about those birds,
I wondered this....
How do they decided who is in charge???  Who leads the group of birds???
How do they signal each other??  How do they communicate??
Where does a group of birds...that large...go all day long???
What time do they fly away in the morning???
Those are my questions....
When The Darlings were Little Darlings....we were getting ready to go to church one Sunday
morning.  The Missionary Boy really loved birds and at that time was always wanting to shoot
one with his BB gun.  The Farmer told him that he had to eat whatever he shot...and sometimes
that was pretty interesting...and he did eat basically whatever he shot...anyway...so we are
getting ready to go to church...these same birds had chosen to roost in the trees that lined
the streets of our community and they were a little bothersome.  As you can imagine, a big group
of birds is both messy....and noisy.  So just as we were walking out the door for church, The
Darlings and I hear and extremely loud.....BOOM....the sound of a shotgun being shot....and
the big group of birds that had settled in a neighbor's trees....headed for the sky.  And then
The Darlings burst into tears!  The sound really scared them!  Our neighbor (to the left Bro. B)
couldn't take it anymore and shot his shotgun into the trees to get those birds to move along.
That same event took place several more times...and the birds learned that they really needed to
find another location to roost....and they did.  Now they can be found in the "big park"....
At Dusk.....

2 comments :

Sue said...

that's a lot of birds!!

Can't say I blame the brothers scaring them away..That's a ton of
bird poop.

Krissy said...

In the first picture, I thought that it was taken in the summer with the pecans growing. Then, I read the story. That is a lot of birds! What an amazing sight. I like the rule "You eat what you shoot." My missionary boy once shot a bird, but after he shot it, there was nothing left of him, just a spray of feathers floating around.

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