Do unto others

I wish I'd had my camera handy. I just witnessed something in nature that applies to humans. If adults stay out of kids' squabbles, the kids usually resolve the issue. It is adults who teach prejudice and intolerance. Kids come to us with a clean slate; they learn from from our actions and even our inactions more than they do from our words.

As usual, I tossed cooked egg yolk to the family of mocking birds, and because there was a flock of black birds (starlings)at the bird bath and a mom with her screaming baby on the fence, I tossed some bread to them on the other side of the yard.

Then, two baby birds, a black starling and a baby mockingbird both left their mothers and flew towards a small scrap of bread. They inched closer and closer from opposite directions like two gunslingers in the old west, until they were face to face. The black bird looked down; the mocking bird opened its mouth. The black bird cocked its head back and forth as if to say, "What! You want ME to feed YOU?" This went on for about a minute and a half, and the black bird appeared to be ready to help out the little mocking bird. It was so cute! Then the mother starling swooped in and fed that scrap to her own baby, and the mocking bird flew in to chase the mother starling. If only they had waited another few seconds, I guarantee you, that little fluffy black bird would have fed that little speckle-breasted mocking bird.