Category Archives: Home & Family

Our 15-year-old Cockatiel “Princess Birdie” has been very ill recently. She had a bacterial and fungal infection and spent several days in the For the Birds hospital:

• For the Birds
  Fern Van Sant DVM
  1136 South De Anza Blvd., Suite B
  San Jose, California 95129
  (408) 255-1739

Our family learned how to give medicine and nursing to a creature the size of my hand. She also has new perches for her cages (one in the kitchen and the other in my office) and new food. Birdie is now feeling much better.

Images Copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

We live on the

Guadalupe River in San Jose, CA where there are
many birds and many kinds of birds. This spring, we are beset
by a particularly noisy

Mockingbird who has started singing outside of our windows
for much of the night. From the descriptions I have read,
this is probably a male bird seeking a mate. I hope he finds
happiness soon because I am tired of being woken up by his lovelorn
songs.

For many years, I have seen mockingbirds chasing squirrels and other birds
but this is the first time our garden has hosted a persistent night
singer. According to
Wikipedia

“The Northern Mockingbird, in addition to being a good mimic, is also one of the loudest and most constantly vocal of birds. It often sings through the night, especially unmated males, or when the moon is full. It sings year-round except sometimes for the late-summer molting season. Individual males have repertoires of 50 to 200 songs; females sing as well, but more quietly and less often than males. Mockingbirds usually sing the loudest in the twilight of the early morning when the sun is on the horizon.”

There were so many different songs, I wasn’t sure it was just one bird
singing. Then I read the following from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s

All About Birds web page: “If you’ve been hearing an endless string of
10 or 15 different birds singing outside your house, you might have a
Northern Mockingbird in your yard.” I have enjoyed reading up on
our garden visitor, happy to have a chance to check out the new
and ambitious Encyclopedia of Life
which seeks to “organize and make available via the Internet virtually all information about life present on Earth.”

On my walk last night, I saw a mockingbird on a telephone wire over
our street, loudly singing many different birds’ songs in quick succession.
True to his latin name Mimus polyglottos, the many-tongued mimic
sang everyone’s song as his own.

My daughter Jessica was with us for a whirlwind visit after her
Sophomore final exams at
Carnegie Mellon University (in Pittsburgh, PA) and before
starting her summer internship with the

World Organization for Human Rights USA in Washington, D.C.
We had not seen Jessica since January, so the whole family (and
her boyfriend Matt) took turns enjoying her company. We are all
very proud of our busy and clever girl!

We went to the movies (seeing
Star Trek and
Wolverine), many doctor visits for Paul, Paul’s annual

IEP to set up his classes and support for next year, and shopping.
Jessica also joined us tutoring for Studio 17 at
SMUM, and we had two nights of
playing cards and board games. She and our little neighbor
Sonia even washed the dogs. I think Jessica caught up on her sleep
in between all the visits. We look forward to seeing Jessica again
in August for a few weeks before CMU starts again. Until then, we go
back to reading Jessica’s blog for updates. I am very glad she is a good writer…

waiting for the doctor

Jessica and Sonia wash the dogs

Matt, Jessica, Paul

waiting for the doctor

Studio 17 Tutoring at SMUM

Images Copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson