Birdman Extraordinaire

In September 2006, I posted this true Teague story on my blog.

“Do mom and dad still have that bird?” Smelly asks Anne.

“What bird? Levi stubbs (their finch)? Yeah.”

“No, that bird that Dad caught.”

“What are you talking about??”

Two weeks ago Smelly was visiting home. Dad tells her that a hummingbird had sat on his finger. “If you sit really really still they’ll land on it,” he says. He convinces her to stand next to the feeder and hold her hand out. When nothing happens, he dismisses her attempt with a wave.

“The colors you’re wearing are too bright for them. Too bright of pink.”

The next weekend, Mom, Dad, Smelly, Krystal, and Derek were sitting out on the back porch eating dinner. Their 75 acre old farmland spreads out behind them.

“I’ll bet you I can go out there and pet that bird (on the feeder),” says Dad. Everyone laughs. They don’t believe him. Dad stealthily walks out to the old bird feeder and sure enough, he pets the bird!

Everyone insists on trying it, too. So they each go out, one at a time.

Dad raises the stakes. “I bet ya I can get that bird to sit on my finger.”

More balking from his family.

He approaches the bird and sure enough, it sits on his finger!

Everyone insists on perching a bird on their finger, too. They each go out, one at a time

Dad is feeling confident. “You know what, I betcha I can capture that bird!”

“No, no!” “Whatever Dad!” “Yeah right!” No one believes him. Afterall, it’s a wild bird!

“We still have that old bird cage, don’t we Karen?” he asks.

Everyone continues to protest.

Mom brings out the birdcage. He gets the wild bird on his finger and starts walking with it. Everyone watches with baited breath. Then he grabs it with two hands. “Heh heh, I got you now!”

Into the cage the bird goes. “You’ve got to let him go!” they say.

Then they try to put a perch in there.

A few days later Anne asks Dad, “Do you still have that bird?”

“No, no, we let it out that night!”

“I don’t know what everybody was freaking out about,” says Dad.

“It could have been tamed!”

Last Christmas, my Dad made this grandiose claim:

“I can get a hummingbird to sit on my finger. How much money is in it for me?”

Of course, we do not believe him. The nature of the hummingbird is to NEVER stop fluttering its wings, eating, flying about. If there’s one wild bird that you cannot tame, it is the hummingbird for sure.

Today I received this photo from my mother:

Note to readers: Never make a bet with birdman!