You guys like birds, right? I do and I’m doing my best to make Stephan like them too. Starting with these:
[note: all but the first of these photos were stolen from you, the Internets]
{{tiny little baby ducks on the canal}}
{{moorhens who will eat anything}}
{{comparatively solemn coot}}
{{blue tit who flits around our garden}}
{{goldfinches who stopped by that one time}}
{{cute little robins}}
{{song thrush (aka “throstle,” mascot of the football club that Stephan is required to support)}}
{{collared dove whose call sounds exactly like Stephan when he’s making fun of my frustration, usually at my inability to defend myself from whatever mean thing he is doing to me (listen!)}}
{{blackbird who patronizes our ghetto birdbath (i.e., the grill that came with the place, whose purpose is to sit outside, collecting rain and growing algae)}}
A number of blackbirds pop ’round to our garden throughout the day. They are sleek, handsome, well-mannered birds in the genus ever hilarious to nine-year-old boys, Turdus. There is one whom I fear may have fallen out of the nest onto his tiny little baby blackbird head at some point, as his favorite pastime is to fan out his wings and tail, flatten himself to the top of our garden shed (note: occasional haunt of thousands of local cats), and stare at the sky open-beaked.
This is all to tell you about the other day when Stephan complained of having “Barbie Girl,” a totally awesome song that everybody loves because, as mentioned, it is totally awesome and also never annoying, stuck in his head. Then I realized the same thing had happened to me the day before, which was odd as I haven’t actually listened to that song in approximately 10 years.
Then we realized that the blackbirds have been singing it. Just the first five notes of the chorus (“I’m a Barbie girl!”), but that’s all it takes. I can’t find a good clip of it online, but let me tell you: it is uncanny, and we will make sure you witness this phenomenon when you come visit.
The only question is who is on the hook for copyright infringement here.
