Cumulus: The Attack of the Eastern Kingbird

For the past two weeks, we've been dodging the headsnapping attacks of a pair of Eastern Kingbirds, defending a nest they built in the neighbors' rain gutter. I came up with the brilliant Umbrella Tactic, which works quite well unless you have things to carry to or from the car, in which case wielding the umbrella shield gets rather unwieldy. But it's still better than getting your head snapped at by a tiny winged demon.

Cool Facts
The Eastern Kingbird is highly aggressive toward nest predators and larger birds. Hawks and crows are attacked regularly. A kingbird was observed to knock a Blue Jay out of a tree and cause it to hide under bush to escape the attack.

(http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Eastern_Kingbird/lifehistory)

Today as we pulled back into the driveway we share with the above-mentioned neighbors, preparing to lug groceries into the house while brandishing the above-mentioned umbrellas, what do we find but our mild-mannered neighbor lady packing a water bazooka loaded for bear! "I'm sorry, but I just can't take being attacked all the time anymore!" she cried desperately, possibly fearing the grim disapproval of a couple of bird-huggers. "We agree!" we shouted, and proceeded to share our common grief over the complexities of bird vs. human. "If we'd caught it sooner, we'd have stopped the nest-building before they finished it," she assured us. "We're having the roof done in a couple of weeks, so they'd better teach those babies to fly before then!"

Which moved us on to talk of roof repairs and other neighborly concerns (we'll be getting our roof done this summer, too). The birds apparently recognized the water gun because they stayed just out of range while we were talking. Hopefully the babies will fledge soon so we can put away the umbrellas and bazookas and have the driveway return to neutral airspace. Don't get me wrong—I am glad to have kingbirds around because they eat lots of flying insects and are beautiful to watch swooping through the air, as long as they aren't swooping at my head.