This last week-end we were vendors at a craft and hobby show in Elfrieda, AZ. It was a one day show, but was fairly close to home and gave a chance for us to display our thistle feeders, hummingbird feeders and all the rest of our bird feeders.
We noticed an older gentleman standing back away from our booth and just listening to us answer questions about the bird feeders and help with identifying some species. He would wander away, but always seemed to return.
After the crowd thinned out a bit, he walked over to the thistle socks and picked one up. When I asked if he had any questions he started to tell me that he wasn’t really a bird watcher, but had just “kinda noticed the birds in his yard a few weeks ago”.
I asked a few more questions and the whole story came out. I just have to share it with you.
It seems that “Country Grandpa” has always lived in a rural area and has retired from a large ranching operation to just keeping a few goats and chickens. His son had recently married a woman with a young girl and they came to visit for the first time last summer. His new granddaughter “City Girl” was born and has spent her life in the Philadelphia area. Country Grandpa’s wife had died recently and he was worried what he would do with a “City Girl” for a week.
His son reassured him that he would bring things for her to do, but to just treat City Girl like you would any other child that came to visit.
The first morning Country Grandpa took City Girl to help him feed the goats. The goats bumped into City Girl, nibbled at her fingers and smelled funny. City Girl returned to the house with tears welling in her eyes and needing her mommy.
The second morning, after assuring City Girl that she would not have to enter the goat pen, County Grandpa took her to help feed the chickens. City Girl got chicken poop on her Hanna Montana shoes. That was apparently the worst thing in the world. County Grandpa has struck out again.
That afternoon after plying City Girl with Kool-Aide to come out on the porch and the promise of a shopping trip to town to buy her favorite food for supper, City Girl noticed that there were birds in the trees in the backyard. She said that they were smaller than the ones at the park at home, but people liked to feed them popcorn. She asked County Grandpa if he fed the birds and could she help him do that?
Country Grandpa and City Girl headed to town to buy a bird feeder and seed. They put the bird feeder up that afternoon and the next morning City Girl noticed some brown birds coming to the feeder. She asked County Grandpa what kind they were. The wise and wonderful daughter-in-law said that the birds were the same color as City Girl’s Brownie troop’s uniforms so they should call those birds Brownie Birds.
The next bird that came in had yellow eyes and a bill that turned down like he was frowning. He also scared the Brownie Birds away. He became known as Bully Bird (curved-billed thrasher).
County Grandpa then saw a bird that had a feather sticking out funny on his head and some red, but not enough to be a cardinal, it was just kind of a dull looking cardinal. County Grandpa named him “Arizona Cardinal” (pyrrhuloxia) because some times watching the Arizona Cardinal football team om TV was dull. (Opinions expressed by Country Grandpa are not necessarily those of Tom’s Bird Feeders.)
The next bird was named “Mrs. Liby” (cactus wren) because she always sat up in the top of the tree and scolded everyone and sounded really bad. It seems Mrs. Liby was the playground supervisor at City Girl’s school.
Country Grandpa had stopped by our booth to see if we had a used bird book so he could learn the name of the birds before City Girl came for her next visit. I helped him identify the birds he had seen, but after looking through the book he decided that he liked the names he and City Girl had picked out.
He said that he was sure we thought it was silly, us being biologist and all. I reminded him that my husband’s name is Thomas but I call him Tom. It was his nickname, and in Country Grandpa’s yard the birds just used their nicknames.
After a rough start, I think City Girl and Country Grandpa are on their way to a great relationship, all because of some sparrows sitting in a tree.
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