Deception of the Sandpiper

My season of bird discovery continues with little effort on my part.

Last week Brandy and I took Emma over to my brother Keith's house so that she could visit his dog. As we got out of the car and headed to Keith's front door a sandpiper began squawking at us, flapping its wings and charging toward us. We've seen the birds around but never had one acted so unusual.

After a short visit where Emma bonded more with Sawyer, we went back outside and the bird was still nearby. It continued to act strangely. It flared its tail feathers and flapped a wing, acting injured. As I approached it, the bird took off running down the street. It obviously wanted me to follow.

I stopped and looked around and saw a mother bird with three or four babies behind me. It appeared they were just out for a walk. When we got closer to the mother and her babies, the momma bird got all upset. At one point Emma got a little too close and the Momma flew toward her and Emma ran away with a terrified look on her face.

Brandy remained cool as the drama unfolded but I looked at her after the mother bird chased her youngest daughter away and Brandy's motherly instinct was burning in her eyes. I saw it.

I was telling her tonight that I was going to blog about the whole experience and how I knew from the look in her eye that she wanted to take out that bird.

She surprised me when she told me that that look was meant for me because I stirred things up by messing with the poor mother bird and her little babies.

Brandy's revelation made me laugh, but I was shocked, too. After a moment of self reflection, I now know that I need to pay more attention to my wife's nonverbal cues and less attention to warblings of birds.