For some weeks now, the small black-headed birds have been making a mess of my car, specifically, the rear view mirrors. The birds nest in the ivy groundcover and other places nearby. This year, they have taken a keen interest in the mirrors wherein they find rivals of a particularly tenacious and persistent sort. Neighbors have stopped to tell me how determined the birds are when they hammer at the mirrors. I’ve seen them on other cars too.

Today when I approached the car, I couldn’t help but see that the mirrors were once again encrusted. Not just the tops where they perch, but the front door windows were heavily embellished as well. The mirrors themselves now had blurred patches from constant attention. Earlier I overheard a conversation between Mr. and Mrs. Bird:

Mrs. B: When are you going to help with this nest?
Mr. B: I’ve just about beaten him.
Mrs. B: Did you see my ‘to do’ list? We need more material.
Mr. B: He can’t take much more of this punishment.
Mrs. B: How do you know if you win?
Mr. B: I win when he goes away.
Mrs. B: It’s like a video game, isn’t it? The man sits there all day, killing and maiming unbeatable things while the woman does all the work.
Mr. B: Take that, you jerk. I’m the man! I’m the man!

Which is why there are plastic bags neatly rubberbanded to my mirrors. After spending more time than I wanted scraping down the encrustations. Time I could have spent admiring the goldfish I bought last night to go in my deer scare minipond.