Sunny’s in Love
Illustrations Coming Soon
Sunny and WhiteWing were busy building their nest. They picked a location in Sunny’s territory and WhiteWing told Sunny exactly how she wanted it built. It would be a grand nest with room for at least four eggs.
Over the next few days, Sunny worked frantically while WhiteWing supervised. He built a platform of twigs, then laid an assortment of grasses, leaves, moss, and hair. They made a smashing dance to compact this layer for a soft floor.
Very carefully, Sunny formed a cup in the middle and lined it with the finest, softest things he could find. Mostly he found young rootlets. Sometimes, though, he found nice pieces of wool or string that he would present to WhiteWing as gifts.
Before long, WhiteWing honored him by laying four mockingbird eggs–pale blue, with cinnamon blotches. Life is good for Sunny and WhiteWing.
WhiteWing loved to watch Sunny take off from the highest tip and float aloft, with his wings spread wide. He would leap up and float down, gushing his hunting squawks all the way. He would pounce on a grasshopper suspended amongst the wildflowers.
She liked it when he brought other bugs, like beetles, ants, moths, and spiders. And she was especially pleased when he brought home wild blackberries, fig bits, and loquat fruit.
The happy couple awoke one morning to find intruders in their yard. A gang of young mockers were helping themselves to the bounty. They were stealing from Sunny and WhiteWing.
Flinging himself into the air, Sunny went to defend his territory. While the intruders were busy stuffing their beaks, he attacked from the left. He attacked from the right, above, around, again.
He was so fierce and swift. Shriek, shriek, shriek. Feather storm. In minutes the strays were overcome and fled. WhiteWing beamed with pride as Sunny did a victory lap, gliding along his boundaries. He conveys the story about the enemies and the danger so that Racer can be on the lookout. Squawk, squawk, squawk.
Both birds were busy the next few days. Sunny loved to chase the squirrels. Threeep. Threep, Threeep. He had to chuckle at the silly squirrels.
Sometimes, just for fun, Sunny would stage attacks on the mailman. In the nearby crepe myrtle Sunny would wait for the uniformed mail carrier to come walking up the sidewalk.
Just as the mailman reached into his bag for a handful of mail, Sunny would swoop down close to the man’s ear and shout, “Cack, cack, cack.” The man would let out a surprised squeal, stumble a little, and look around to see if the attack would continue. Sunny never tired of this game.
Meanwhile, WhiteWing stayed home to incubate the clutch. Her job was to keep her family warm and safe. All four eggs fit nicely under her ample breast.
She didn’t mind sitting there so much because she had time to dream about all the things she would do with her new brood. She would feed them all the good things that hatchlings like to eat.
And when they were ready, she would teach her babies to do all the wonderful things that mockingbirds do. WhiteWing would be plenty busy when the eggs hatched. She would save up her energy until then.