To Kill a Mockingbird?

(Yes, I am aware this is not a mockingbird)

A few weeks ago, JRR and I spent a sleepless night listening to the incessant noise of a bird in the tree outside our bedroom window. This bird literally chirped all night, with no more than 45 second breaks.

Determined that I would not be robbed of my sleep a second night, I turned to the www in search of an answer. Well, we all know what kind of crazy things you can find there, but I did at least find enough information that was consistent and made some sense. What I found that greatly disturbed me was that, if this was a seasonal, territorial issue, it could last from days to a couple of months. Not acceptable.

My determination growing stronger, I asked little L that morning if he knew where his air soft gun was. “Yes,” he replied, “why?”

“Ever wanted to shoot a bird?”

“Cool!”

Since it was doubtful that he would be able to even see the bird and would only be shooting up into the tree to frighten it away, I didn’t expect the bird to be harmed. However, I was willing to take that risk. I get extremely serious about sleep, and seriously irrational without it.

We watched and listened that day as the bird (NOT a sweet dove like you see above) did some sort of fighting dance with a bird from the next tree. The noise continued the entire day. . .until dusk when little L and his dad went to take care of the matter. The noise had ceased and the bird was nowhere to be seen. Poor little L came back inside disappointed but vowing to jump out of bed that night if needed to defend his mother’s sanity. It was not needed. We never heard from the bird again.

Fast forward to a few days ago. As I was sitting at my desk in the living room, I noticed a dove sitting on the window ledge above the front door, peering in.

“Awww,” I gushed, “there’s a dove in the window watching us.”

Without missing a beat, little L offered, “Shoot it!”