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The Other Birdwatcher In The Family

© Sharon Wren

I must confess - I've been making it sound like I'm the only birdwatcher in the family but I'm not. There's somebody here who has been into birdwatching for years. No, it's not my husband and it can't be the baby because he's only 16 months old. The birdwatcher in the house is...my 10 year old cat Tigger.

Tig has been an avid bird fan for as long as I can remember. I used to live in a duplex that overlooked a ravine and he loved to sit in the kitchen window, look out over the ravine and watch every bird that flew by. He didn't keep a journal and didn't use binoculars, but he never missed a day. I always knew when he spotted one because the tip of his tail would twitch and he would let out the weirdest noises. They weren't the standard meows, but more like "mert...mert...mert". He'd crouch down low on the windowsill and watch them for hours.

When we moved out to the island, I got into birdwatching myself and did all I could to encourage them to congregate at our house. I hung one of those bell shaped seed feeder things outside the baby's window, thinking the little birdies would come and Logan could enjoy them. They came all right, and somebody did enjoy them - Tigger. No, not in the literal sense! The chickadees came regularly, until the day I opened the window to get some fresh air in the house (diapers will do wonders to a room's aroma) and Tig jumped up That first poor little chickadee that came to the feeder must have had a coronary! True, there was a screen window between them, but still! No birds came to that feeder after that and the squirrels ended up with a snack. There's a Mickey Mouse feeder outside of the other window in Logan's room, but we never open that window because it's right by the crib.

Tigger has a few favorite watching spots in the house. He likes to sit on the back of the couch in the living room and look out the big window at the river. That's where he saw his first goose. Can you just imagine what he was thinking that day? "Geez, will you get a load of that bird? It's the biggest one I've ever seen!" I didn't catch his reaction the day the house was surrounded by geese, but I'll bet he thought he could take on all of them. Come to think of it, the dogs like to sit on the back of the couch too, as does Logan. I've got more birdwatchers here than I thought!