Mocker Met Poe

By James Shannon Abney

This is a tale about a little mockingbird and his relationship with a not-so-common human-raised crow by the name of Poe. They lived in a quiet wooded suburban neighborhood with grass, bushes, and trees and lots of bird feeders and baths. Their story should have been one of being content and happy, but no. Their story was one of growing up and f

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stratton Press
• Release date: Nov 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9781648956720

James Shannon Abney

James Shannon Abney is an artist and an engineer. He is a student of world history and the Christian Bible. He grew up in rural Georgia, experiencing the outdoors with his two dogs and horse. He spent many hours with his three companions exploring woods and creeks as he sketched and wrote short stories.He and his family trained horses and competed in hunter/jumper shows while instructing riding students throughout the southeast for many years.He holds a master's degree in mechanical engineering and is a student pilot. What he enjoys most is watching his daughter train horses and compete in show jumping horse shows.He writes a variety of stories, ranging from children's books, which he illustrates, and short mystery and horror stories plus western novels set back in history.

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Mocker Met Poe

Copyright © 2021 James Shannon Abney

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Stratton Press Publishing

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Wilmington, DE 19801

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in the work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

ISBN (Paperback): 978-1-64895-671-3

ISBN (Ebook): 978-1-64895-672-0

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

To my wife, Nancy, and my daughter, Tara

Chapter 1

Seed Crushers, Bug Eaters, and Flycatchers

Dear friends, this is a tale about a little bird named Mocker. This tale involves the neighborhood birds that you can see every day in your very own backyard.

Mocker and his family were mockingbirds that lived in a wooded suburban neighborhood outside of town. The houses all had fenced-in backyards full of green grass, bushes, trees, squirrels, and of course all kinds of different birds, and most certainly, there were human children with their pet dogs and cats.

Several different kinds of bird families had made these backyards their home. Birds like the kingbird, the robin, and the scarlet tanager migrate from one place to another but usually to the same areas. They only visited in the backyards at certain times of the year.

Song sparrows, northern mockingbirds, mourning doves, and even some northern cardinals had picked out these backyards and made it their home territory to raise families and live there all year round.

This neighborhood was a great place to live. The human families had hung up numerous bird feeders full of seeds for the birds that were seedeaters, and some had even set up concrete birdbaths with flowers growing all around them for the birds. The flower gardens usually had worms down in the rich soil for the birds that were worm eaters. When the backyard grasses were mowed, little insects would flurry around the freshly cut grass and made good eating for the birds that were bug eaters.

This area really was a cozy place for the birds to make a home, and everyone should have been happy and content. But no, like most stories, this one is about the problems and the struggles of living together, growing up, and learning that life isn’t always smooth and trouble free. It’s about challenges and overcoming problems. It’s about helping and being helped. Most of all, it’s about just getting along with friends and strangers alike and accepting others who are not like you.

Thank goodness most of us have our families and a few close friends to help us through all of the challenges in life that seem to come when you least expect it.

My friends, you may have realized, birds, like people, are not all alike. They come in different shapes, sizes, and colors. They have different habits, tastes, and different temperaments.

Let me tell you of a few types of birds that lived near our little bird, Mocker.

I’ll start with mourning doves. They are very sweet looking with soft smooth feathers. They make a very soothing cooing sound that some people mistake for an owl early in the morning. Mourning doves are usually in groups and hang around backyard feeders. They have short legs and have a comical head-bobbing walk rather than hop like the sparrows. Their eyes are big and kind looking.

In contrast, the gray mockingbirds, with the white markings on the underside of their gray wings, are very territorial and do not like other birds (called intruders) coming into their yards.

Mockingbirds are very unusual because they can mimic or mock other birds.

They can talk and sing and sound like all other birds. They can even sound like a dog barking or a lawn mower cranking.

Birds like the mockingbird are called songbirds because of the beautiful songs they sing. They blend songs of other birds in with theirs. But let me tell you, friends, they are brave and will defend their homes when needed.

If they are attacked by larger birds, even a hawk, they will not fly away. They will turn and become the attacker while the whole time they are calling for their relatives to come to their aid.

Mockingbirds often squabble among themselves, but it is usually just arguing and fussing—very little actual fighting. They save that for intruders.

When help is called for by a fellow mockingbird, they will all band together no matter what their differences are and come to the aid of the one in danger, swooping down in large numbers to run off an intruder. This is called mobbing.

If they’re not coming to the aid of another mockingbird against an intruder, then they don’t want him coming into their territory at all and will stop him at the borderline of their territory.

When a single mockingbird nears the yard of another mockingbird’s territory, then you are very likely to see the famous border dance.

If you are ever lucky enough to see one, it can be very entertaining. They face each other eyeball to eyeball and move sideways like they are dancing—not forward or backward, but sideways. They spread their wings and dance left and right, occasionally fluttering up and down as they stay on the imaginary border in perfect movement of the other. It almost looks like one bird is the mirror image of the other. Only mockingbirds are known to do this.

Other backyard birds are the wrens. They are tiny little birds that keep to themselves and make little nest on the eves and corners of houses. You hardly even notice them. They sort of just stay out of everyone’s way.

Not so with the ruddy little birds that are called cardinals. They have raised crests on top of their heads that stand up when they are angry. They have brilliant red plumage (plumage is just another word for feathers). They also have a black mask and are very confrontational, sometimes with themselves.

They have been known to attack the hubcaps on a car because they saw their image in the shiny chrome and thought it was another bird invading their area. They have been seen pecking furiously at a side-view mirror of a car while fluttering in front of it over a half an hour.

Their beaks are a heavy conical bill type. They are powerful for crushing seeds, and they truly love sunflower seeds. But what seed crusher doesn’t?

All the backyards had visiting brown thrashers and blue jays, but the little sparrows outnumbered them all.

So basically, friends, you have your seed crushers, your bug eaters, and flycatchers.

Of course, there are tree climbers, ground walkers, and also aerialists. (Don’t worry, I’ll explain this to you later as the story goes on.)

My friends, now that you are reading my story and are learning about birds, I may address you as birders from time to time. That is what you are called if you study, watch, or raise birds. I’ll tell you more about this later also.

If you remember, my fellow birders, I began by telling you that this story involved some neighborhood birds—and it does. But this is really the story of a very small mockingbird named Mocker and his relationship with a not-so-common neighborhood crow called Poe.

Chapter 2

Hatchlings, Nestlings, and Fledglings—Oh My!

Mocker was a very small mockingbird. He was the youngest fledgling in the nest (fledglings are baby birds that haven’t grown their full set of feathers yet but can grasp with their claws). They are called hatchlings when they first hatch out of the egg and are called nestlings before their eyes open and when they can’t grasp with their feet to perch.

Mocker’s two brothers and his one sister were all much larger than him. Perhaps it was because they hatched from their brown-spotted blue eggs way before him.

There had been a clutch of four eggs in the comfy cup-shaped nest made of twigs, weeds, and string. The mother, Polly, sat on the eggs to keep them warm so they would develop. Bugger and Digger hatched first. Mocker’s sister, Flitty, hatched last that day, but Mocker didn’t hatch until the following day late in the evening.

And let me tell you, friends, Mother Polly was very concerned over her last little hatchling, Mocker.

You see, all mockingbird hatchlings come out of their eggs without any feathers and are blind and helpless. Their eyes are completely shut, and the only way they can keep warm is by their mother’s warm feathers covering them as she sits on the nest.

The little hatchlings can’t walk, hop, or fly. They are totally dependent on their parents to look after them.

Their eyes stay closed and don’t open for some time. This is called altricial—it means blind, naked, and helpless. They cannot feed themselves—this is done by their mother and father. The little nestlings must be fed about five times an hour.

The little birds are snug in their nest and just wait with their mouths open for the mother or father to stuff food down into their throats.

Well, Mocker was very different—he hatched with his eyes wide open. This was very unusual. It was never heard of. But there he was taking in all the wonderful sights around the nest just as naturally as you could ever see.

A bird’s eyes are very special. Their eyeballs are flatter than ours. They have three eyelids, and the retina is twice as thick. It is believed that a sparrow hawk can see almost eight times more clearly than a human.

Mocker not only had very large eyes, he was also very curious about everything going on under the nest and tree he was in.

Polly was so alarmed, she called out for his father who was out gathering food. She and Pa had raised many little birds over the years. As a matter of fact, this was their second clutch of eggs this season that she had hatched.

What’s wrong, Polly? Is there an intruder? he asked, returning to the nest.

Polly raised up off the nest to expose the little birds. They all stretched their necks out with gaping mouths blindly hoping to be fed. All except Mocker; he just lay there staring up at his parents patiently waiting his turn to be fed. He was admiring the beauty of his mother. She was slim and gray with white patches on her wings and beautiful yellow eyes with a little hint of black around them.

Oh my lord, gasped the astonished father. His eyes are opened! What’s wrong with him? Why doesn’t he have his mouth opened like the others? Is he sick?

Polly sighed and shook her head. I’m getting too old to raise hatchlings, Pa.

(She always called him Pa. His name was Hector—need I say more?)

Nonsense, Polly, you’re still a spring chicken.

I would just as soon as you didn’t compare me to those plump chicken hens, Pa.

Of course, dear.

Pa leaned in and looked at the little wide-eyed bird.

There’s just something not right with him, that’s all. He doesn’t really look sick, but he does have the biggest eyes I have ever seen. Didn’t your aunt Nelly have big eyes?

Pa!

Okay, okay, sorry, Polly, I won’t go there. (That truly is another story.)

Mocker’s two brothers and his sister, Flitty, were making a terrible noise. Their necks were stretched up as high as they would go. Since they were normal little birds, their eyes hadn’t opened yet and they couldn’t see. So their mouths were gaped open wide as they bobbed toward every little noise they heard in hope of food.

Birds have very good hearing. This is important when they fly for balance. Of course, these little birds were a long way from learning to fly.

Mocker’s two brothers, Bugger and Digger, were quietly stretching their necks up with their mouths open waiting for food. They could have been twins by the way they looked and acted alike.

Their sister, Flitty, was another story. She was a one of a kind. She was always bobbing up and down, weaving back and forth, and chirping for all she was worth. Her mouth was open most of the time.

Mocker just sat quietly watching