By Mark Reels
He once had a mate. They had built a nest together, but their eggs were lifeless as stones.
Now the red male sat on the fence surrounding the koi pond and he sang his four-note song over and over again. But he sang alone.
One morning he noticed the fish swimming in the pond. Their puckering, hungry mouths stirred something in him. He had shared berries with his petite beige mate. He would have fed his chicks.
He hopped cautiously towards the water. As a fish swam up close, the cardinal knelt towards it and dropped seed into a waiting mouth.
Beautiful! So different. Great work!
Well done, and so sweet.
I enjoyed reading this. An unusual story.
A well crafted view of the world around us we rarely see.
Nice story. If you put a birdhouse and a birdbath near your home, you’ll see all kinds of riveting activities. And if you’re curious, as the writer is, you’ll learn a lot about birds’ habits.
We have a lot of bird feeders in our property. We love watching and listening to them. This year we were surprised by sunflowers growing where we never planted them. Our friends the birds dropped sunflower seeds all through our yard. The extra flowers were a wonderful way to wrap up summer.
really bittersweet. we all need to give love where we can.
Thanks. Yeah this bird didn’t give up when he lost his family. He is gonna adopt these fish!
Thanks, everyone for the kind words. I am glad you enjoyed the story.
A different and beautiful story.
Agree with Dee. Bittersweet. Well thought and crafted.
Lovely work, but grammatically I’m unsure about ‘he would have feed his chicks’. Could you explain it?
Hi Alex. Thanks for reading my story. To answer your question, I envisioned this bird being left alone when the eggs he conceived with his former mate ending up being “lifeless as stones.” She left to find a better partner and he had neither chicks or a mate. But his instinct to care for his mate and for the family they might have had, it remained.
He wants the family that he lost. He tells himself “I would have taken care of them.”
I hope this helps.