Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Birdie num num

You just never know when something you’ve seen… or heard… or read... will pop into your mind unexpectedly. Yesterday evening when we were in the kitchen cleaning up after dinner, I cast a sideways glance at my beloved, who was up to his elbows in hot sudsy water doing the dishes (I was rinsing), and the phrase “birdie num num” sprang unbidden into my mind.

Hollywood and romance novels and advice columns present all sorts of ideas about what is romantic, but a guy who will lovingly do the dishes for me is right up there at the top of the list.

In 1968 Peter Sellers made a rather silly movie “The Party. He plays an inept Indian actor, who instead of being fired from a movie set where he has totally screwed up everything, gets invited to a big Hollywood party. Where he totally screws things up. Some parts of the movie are very funny – well, at least they were in the early 1970s. At the time we found this scene especially humorous.



The words “birdie num num” just popped out of my mouth before I realized it. We laughed. Probably because it brought back memories of more than just the movie: back in the day, “birdie num num” became a code phrase for well... you know....

But about a half-hour later, the phrase took on a bit of another meaning when about 4 feet away from my window, a medium-sized hawk suddenly appeared on one of the limbs of the tree trunk I have rigged up to hang the hummingbird feeder on. It sat there for maybe 20 seconds, and then flew onto a nearby branch, and then off it went.

The birds did not come back to the feeder for quite a while, and for good reason: these hawks eat birds. This is only the third time since 1981 that have actually seen one of these hawks at my bird feeder, so I am not too concerned that it will start hanging around what it must see as a “buffet table.”

This morning, Richard pointed this out to me underneath some trees around the corner from the feeding platform.


It obviously had dove for dinner. We will have to see if it comes back for seconds.

3 comments:

Oklahoma Granny said...

When something like that happens I just have to tell myself that it's just the way of nature.

Wanda..... said...

Hawks visit our field often and teach their young to fly there. When they are near other birds send out certain cries, as if informing the others.

salemslot9 said...

here's our Birdie Num Num
lol

http://salemslot9journal.blogspot.com/2011/06/kitty-family-tree-grows.html