Bickering humans and sociable birds

Un-togetherness and true togetherness

I was too tired to write anything yesterday. COVID seems to have placed layers of thick woolly blankets in my head, and I am trying to shake them off. Perhaps this is normal; I have never had COVID before.

Now that Hurricane Beryl has passed, and is creating miserable rain showers in New England (yes, she has reached so far), Jamaican media has seized upon a niggling corruption issue in the form of a report from our Integrity Commission, which is supposed to keep an eye on greedy and conniving politicians. As is so often the case, everyone has a view on the matter and the media pontificates ad nauseam, dragging in the usual commentators. In the end, it all becomes tangled, while everyone is shouting at the tops of their voices and not listening to each other (social media facilitates this beautifully). The aforementioned layers of woolly blankets don’t help, so I have given up trying to unravel it.

This is what we call “democracy” in Jamaica. When the shouting dies down, nothing at all will be resolved. We will all move on.

I would rather reacquaint myself with the birds in our garden. They are better company. Having refilled the bird baths today, I was pleased to see the dark, lumbering shapes of a group of Smooth-Billed Anis enjoying a splash. These are interesting creatures, related to our cuckoos which all have large tails. The Anis usually sit facing backwards on the edge of the bath, giving those tails a good soak. Apart from their tails, their other major feature is their bill (beak), which gives them an extraordinary “Roman” profile. They also have specially designed feet.

What I love the most about them, though, is that Anis know the true meaning of togetherness. They live together in groups (you rarely see a lone Ani) and lay their eggs in a communal nest. They also don’t believe too much in social distancing, which is pretty unusual for birds. They can be seen cuddling up next to each other on the line.

If only humans were so accommodating.

Probably due to the woolly blankets, I cannot find anything in my garden birds folder. Ugh! However, here are some SBAs chilling together, courtesy of Cornell Lab of Ornithology.