The Quiet Life

I live with a fair amount of silence. I have no audio or visual media in my cottage. Though a radio has been installed, it's quite static-y and so annoying and I haven't used it yet. I like the silent life a lot. It feels meditative. When my door is open, as it is today because it is 80 degrees F and sunny, I can hear the hummingbirds pretty much all of the time. With my handy dandy new bird identification book, and with the help of the internet, it seems as if Anna's Hummingbirds are my most constant neighbors.

I think I mentioned the Northern Mockingbird that seems always to be in the bushes between my cottage and the house on Rose Ave. That would be at El Sombroso Oaks. I love the cheeriness of this talkative bird. S/he must be an extrovert!

I spotted a Brown Headed Cowbird in the garden. These parasitic birds lay their eggs in the nests of other birds and those nest-owning-moms raise the cowbird young as if they are their own. Because the young are often twice the size of the mothers, the maternal birds are unable to keep up and their own young fail to thrive. Even among animals, life isn't always (ever?) fair. Luckily they haven't a concept of fair. We humans create that misery among ourselves.