birds

This recent “Moderately Confused” cartoon by Jeff Stahler had me laughing because it really hit home.

Most of Jeff’s cartoons hit home and make me think because he seems to think like me. So many times I’ll see one of his cartoons and think, “I think that!” or “That happened to me!”

With this bird cartoon, it reminded me of a neighbor, who the other day said to me, “Do you hear those loud birds in the middle of the night? I can’t sleep!”

It’s more like 6 am or so when loud birds start tweeting outside our windows every morning. I am up early, but they still annoy me. They sound like they are right in the house.

I knew exactly what my neighbor meant, and so did Jeff Stahler!

I sent this cartoon to my neighbor. He’s out of town and he replied, “Thank God I am out of town. I can sleep now!”

We have a rooster down the block who crows a lot, but he is not as loud as these birds. I think they are black crows. And peacocks roam the streets – if you ever heard them screech, you would remember that.

Speaking of birds. Lately I’ve been visited by a dove. Almost daily. He/she is quiet, and doesn’t tweet or anything, but I am visited for a few minutes daily.

I believe doves are someone trying to send a message. Maybe I’m crazy, but I believe that.

This guy, or girl, has been visiting me all week.

For a long time, a dove would be overhead on a telephone line whenever I would go to a friend’s house. One time I had a white dove outside my window for literally 12 hours. He didn’t move. I thought he was stuck to the railing!

When my father passed away, I said, “Dad, if you can hear me, can you come visit as a dove with Mom and Joey (my brother who had passed). And I don’t remember if it was the same day or the next, but three doves appeared on my balcony railing.

At first I saw only two, who were together, then off to the side, there was a third dove. It was them!

This is the father I saw in NYC last summer

Last July, I saw a white feather on the sidewalk in New York City. I remember it was on Lexington Avenue, near 44th Street. They say a white feather is a sign from above. I have only see the one white feather. But I’ am always seeing doves.

Till next time . . .

Subscribe via email to my blog and cartoons here – the cartoons will arrive each Friday plus occasional short blog posts are sent during the week.

I laughed out loud when I saw this cartoon “Too Much Coffee Man” by Shannon Wheeler.

It reminded me why you should never throw a piece of bread down when in NYC or you’ll end up like this or worse.

I was in the Flatiron District and I got a sandwich at Panera Bread which is on 23 Street, right down the block from the Flatiron Building. I brought the sandwich back to the building and sat right outside the building where there are tables and chairs on the east side.

A pigeon came by, and sniffed around the ground. I threw a piece of bread down for him, and all of a sudden, it seemed like a flock of 100 pigeons surrounded me. It was a reminder of why you shouldn’t do that.

In Boston, I’ve had little birds, like sparrows, or something like that, come right onto my table and eat from my plate. Luckily the pigeons don’t do that in NYC. They call pigeons “flying rats” in NYC. I don’t feel that, but I don’t want a flock of them surrounding me. It’s sort of scary, like that old Alfred Hitchcock movie “The Birds.”

A screen shot from my video of the MET Lady with her pigeons

In NYC, I’ve seen people feeding pigeons in the parks and they are surrounded by them with some on their shoulders. There is a lady who does this in front of the MET Museum. I filmed her one time and she got mad and chased me away because she said I was scaring the pigeons.

I took a screen shot from my video. You can see the lady cutting up the food and making a thing of it, using an ironing board as a counter to work on.

Can you chase pigeons away from free food?

Till next time . . .

Subscribe via email to my blog and cartoons here – the cartoons will arrive each Friday plus occasional short blog posts are sent during the week.