The Waiting Tree

Seven thousand, three hundred nights I have attended this tree. The first night I roosted on this tree it was barely ten times taller than me and now it is seventy times taller than me, and it is still growing. Believe me, I am an expert concerning this tree. I recall all our visitors.

Each year we are visited by the finches. They are gregarious group. Sometimes there are 30 of them waiting here in my tree, cacophonously speaking to each other about their trip, or their food supply, or the weather. All day long the racket continues while I try to sleep. I know they are just waiting for their turn at the feeder at the human’s house. Unfortunately, they begin their sleep just as I am starting out for the night to hunt for mice.

The woodpeckers appear now and again. They make that ridiculously loud pecking sound as their beaks furiously peck the poor tree trunks. Whether or not they are waiting, I simply don’t like to see them here.

One evening I was just waking up when I discovered a woodpecker just a few feet from me. He became quite obnoxious.

He said to me, “Hey Elroy! Have you ever been over to that house? Want to go raid some food or are you afraid? They leave perfectly good suet outside. I was there for hours today eating as much suet as I wanted. Ha! And when I fly over, all those finches scram out of my way. They are afraid of me.”

I looked him squarely in the eye and said, “Is that so?” while thinking what a
boorish sort he was being. Why, Elroy is not even my name! And then the
woodpecker went to sleep for the night. I hope he moves on tomorrow, so I don’t
have to endure him any longer.

Our tree has a fox. The fox is a good neighbor and although he is not a waiter in
this tree, his den is at the base of our tree. They curl up near the roots
inside a little cave they dug out. He must have made some arrangement with this
tree as usually the foxes find there dens elsewhere. But this tree is a good
provider for him and his family.

I am indifferent toward the possum, perhaps even distrustful. On many extremely cold nights he climbs up here and gets much too close to me for my comfort. And he never speaks to me. I once had to ask him to move along but he just sat there looking at me. Finally, I jumped up and down and screeched at him until he left.

It is almost the same with the raccoons. They seem to come and go with more
purpose and intent though and their industry and cleanliness allow me to
consider them good citizens. I must say, of all these nights I have never had
any problems with a raccoon. In fact, I know several of them quite well.

The small nuthatches are waiters at this tree on cold nights. During the day their
industry is to gather food. They sit on the limbs of this tree and await an
available perch at the nearby house with the food. Then, in their peculiar
manner stand upside down while they eat. I think they are quite comical. I
really do not know them very well as they tend to keep to themselves.

Another of my friends are the numerous turkeys. With all due respect, they are mostly goofy. During the day they puff themselves up and then they look three times the size they really are – at least that is so for the male turkeys. They spend
a large amount of time trying to impress their females. I don’t like to talk
about the love lives of my fellow creatures because it is a very personal and
unique affair for each creature, but if they did not go through all the
silliness, they would have no children. Often, they flap up to the lower limbs
of this tree and sleep well below me.

 On one occasion one young healthy female flapped all the way to my branch. She
seemed quite surprised to see me, and she said, “Oh, I am so very sorry. I
haven’t the energy to move, do you mind terribly if I stay? I promise I will be
no bother to you.”

 “That will be okay,” I said. “But I may need to call out to my wife or another friend
of mine.”

 “Well, okay,” she said. And then she left without even saying goodbye. She went from being very polite to being rude in a few short moments. And when I say she
left, I am being polite. It was more like she stumbled off the branch falling
to another branch. God did not provide them with grace nor good looks.

Then there are the orioles, and I must say there are nice Orioles and not so nice
Orioles waiting here. One family has been returning for several years now since
the nearby house put out some bright new food. One of my Oriole friends from
last year is named Hector so I asked him, “What is that bright food at the
house that you eat all day long?”

 Hector says, “You don’t get around much, do you?”

 To which I replied, “Well I don’t need to go far. Everything I need is available
from my perch in this tree.”

 “Well, it is just an orange, but it is an extraordinarily delicious fruit. They have a
lot of them where I stay in the cold season. The orange is so sweet and good,
and it provides me with great energy.”

 “Hector, what color do you call that orange? I am somewhat color blind, but I still like to know about these things.”

 Hector replies, “Orange.”

So, I repeated my question thinking he did not hear me.

 “No, the color of the orange is orange – the same word for the name of the color and the fruit oh wise one!” declared Hector.

 I laughed at Hector’s response. “I guess I learned something new today!”

 But then Hector’s mate arrived, and they immediately started squawking at one
another and left once again for the nearby house to get some more of that
interesting orange fruit.

 Later that night I snuck over to the nearby house and found a convenient perch near the oranges. When I landed it startled a racoon who was about the steal the
fruit and carry it away for washing. But I stopped him. I thought it was not
fair that the orioles flapped for so many nights to get here only to have their
food stolen by an opportunistic raccoon.

Well, my intent was only to be here to smell the orange fruit, not to steal it. I inspected the orange but, I found the smell altogether revolting! Yuchh – why would any creature want to have that for their nourishment? I understand it is not for me! And then I flew back to this tree.

 I did not talk again to Hector. He never returned.

 Another visitor was the towhee. And they were only ten or twelve of them for twenty nights. They kept to themselves but stayed in this tree until a perch closer to the house was free. They left suddenly one morning, and I did not see them
again during the warm season.

When the season changes from very cold to warm the robins will arrive. So too will
the obnoxious blue jays arrive and prove to be a nuisance again. The blue jays
just irritate the regal cardinal.

Kerri, one of my Cardinal friends says this of the blue jays, “They come to steal from us. They are as bad as the crows. They are loud, and they swear. I don’t know where they go during the cold season, but I am sure I would not want to be near them at that time.”

The truth of the matter was Kerri was missing a shiny band she had found and she thought it was the blue jay that stole it. I tried to tell her the real thief was a crow, but Kerri would not believe me even though I saw it with my own eyes.

Sometimes I am honored by our visitors. Egbert arrived just I was going to sleep
yesterday morning.

“How’s the hunting here. It’s been three days since I have eaten,” said Egbert.

 “It’s fair here, I find a mouse or two every other night or so. But they are just
skinny mice. And sometimes I put myself at risk of the coyotes to get my food.”

Egbert replied, “Oh coyotes. They can be rough. Probably not worth the risk for you. Well, it is just a short flap to the river and there I can fish. I will not
hunt here. That will leave more for you. Once I get to the river, I will
rapidly fill my belly.”

 “Fish huh? I know about fish, but I don’t know how to fish. Otherwise, I would like
to join you sometime.”

 “It would be my pleasure,” said Egbert and then he flew away.

 And so, I sit this morning, thinking about the end of my night, “Last night was a
warm night and it felt very good. And the hunt was good too. I caught two mice
and without any risk. I thought I had a third mouse too, but it managed to get
underground before I could get him.”

 And at that instant, one of the two legged humans emerged from the nearby house and looked at this tree. It was a human with long hairs on his head and face, and
he held something in his hands. I had seen him before in the distance. But I
was safely high up in the tree, so I did not consider him to be any threat.

Oh wait – this was the human I had seen at the end of the last warming season. He
had been picking up the fruit from this tree. I knew that humans ate tree
fruits. The human had the strength to open the shell and eat the meat of this
fruit. I remember the human said it was a walnut. But this is the beginning of
the warm season and not the end – the fruit is not yet ready to eat. So why is
he here?

And then a great roar issued forth from the thing the human was carrying. And
suddenly the tree was crying for the first time. And the crying lasted for
hours with a roar so deafening that I had to leave. But I moved about 600 flaps
away, so I could observe. I was so tired, but I could not sleep with this roar
continuing. And the terror of the crying of the tree.

 And then, the waiting tree fell, and it waited no more.