My son Alex and I were sitting on the back deck hoping for a cool breeze to come by. I looked up at the ceiling fan, its blades spinning as fast as they could go. “That’s not helping much today.”
Alex followed my gaze. “I guess we could go back inside with the air conditioning.”
“I hate being indoors in the summer.” I tipped back in my rocker. “Let’s give it a few more minutes.” I looked out at the woods and could see the leaves were beginning to move. “See?” I pointed to the top of the trees. “The breeze is starting to pick up.”
Hearing the hopefulness in my voice Alex settled back in his chair. “I’ll give it a few more minutes but if it doesn’t get any cooler I’m headed inside.”
“Okay. Thanks.” I began slowly rocking.
I pointed to the dozen or so cowbirds pecking away under our bird feeders. “Do you remember the children book, Are You My Mother? I think the author’s name was Eastman.”
Alex looked over at me. “Vaguely?”
“I wonder if cowbirds go around asking other cowbirds, ‘Are you my mother?’” I was still looking at them as they chased a chipmunk away from the seeds. “I read that cowbirds lay their eggs in other birds nests. They have no idea who their parents or even their siblings are.”
Alex nodded his head. “It is kind of weird that they do that.”
“I guess it’s a nice time saver for Mom.” I looked back to the cowbirds. “Not having to make a nest, or have to deal with incubation.”
“Or feeding them once they’re born.” Alex added.
I nodded in agreement. “So, I guess cowbirds are actually more like the party birds of the bird feeder gang.” I laughed as I looked over at Alex. “All the fun and none of the work.”
A breeze began to stir. “Finally!” Alex said as looked over at the cowbirds. “I wonder what they think when they look over in the nest and see that the others don’t look anything like them?”
“Yeah, I was wondering what the parents think when the chicks hatch and they start to feed them. Do they notice a difference between their young?”
Alex shrugged his shoulders. “I guess we’ll never know.”
“I don’t know.” I picked up my phone and began a Google search. “Someone somewhere must have done a study about it.” I started scrolling through articles.
“Well, that’s the nice thing about summer for you.” Alex said as he got up to go back in the house.
“What?” I stopped scrolling and looked over at him.
“You have the summer off so you can research things like that.”
“That’s true.” I nodded. “It’s kind of fun to have the time to look up weird stuff.”
“See?” Alex said as he leaned over and kissed the top of my head. “You can sit out here for the rest of the morning, sweating and doing your research.”
“It’s not that hot out here.” I went back to my phone and started scrolling again.
“It is for me.” He used the back of his hand to wipe the sweat off his forehead. “Besides I have to start work.”
“Well, I’ll have an answer to our questions by lunch.” I looked over at him as he opened the back door. “I promise!” I called.
“Looking forward to it.” He called back as he went inside.
“No he’s not.” I quietly said to myself as I found a research paper that looked promising. “But I do love how he humors me with stuff like this.”
Slice of Life 