He and She were sitting around the dinner table, sharing and discussing the events of the day. They were in their cabin in a clearing of the north woods, and as they talked, they watched the fox hunting voles, the deer munching their freshly-trimmed flower garden, and the parade of birds racing from feeder to tree and back again …
She: “Hey! You know what?”
He: “Before my time. I understand he was a powerful guy.”
She: “Ha. Ha ha. Ha. Well, Cat was here for lunch, so she wouldn’t have to listen to you. She was sitting in your chair and we were talking talking, and suddenly she swings around and points out the window, ‘There’s a Varied Thrush!'” I turned to look and just got to see it fly off. ‘Next time, point quieter’, I said.”
He: “Too bad you didn’t get a chance to see it. They’re rather one of the more attractive birds in these parts. And they used to be a whole lot more common.”
She: “They were? What happened?”
He: “They was robbed!”
She: “Robbed? By what? Masked bandits?”
He: “The raccoons had nothing to do with it. Back in the day, you had a lawn, you’d probably find Varied Thrushes in charge, doing what birds do on a lawn. But there was no robin.”
She: “No robbin’ … Did they carry purses or something?”
He: “Must have been something to tempt them. Because when the Robins moved in, the Varied Thrushes moved out. Now, what’s left of them lurk in the woods, while the Robins lord it over their turf.
She: “So the Robins are usurpers!”
He: “That’s pretty much the story. Not that it doesn’t happen all the time out there. Used to be a fair number of Purple Finches here too, until the House Finches arrived and drove them all off. Dearest Mother Nature, red in bill and feather.”
She: “House Finches can drive? Who knew?”
He: “Even the avifauna contribute to global warming. Oy. One bit of good news, though.”
She: “What’s that?”
He: “There doesn’t seem to be any species fixing to move in and displace any of our native hummingbirds.”
She: “Would they come to our feeders?”
He: “They’d be uslurpers!”
She: “[…] I have a fork in my hand …!!”
Ha ha.
Thanks for the smile
And the fork has pointy bits to help let some of that hot air out of you.