樱桃熟了

In the neighborhood near my house, almost everyone has a few trees, mostly pine and cypress, but also a few cherry trees.

The cherry blossoms faded in April. Without awareness, the cherries were almost ripe.

How did I know?

The birdsong outside my window suddenly became very loud.

Once, during a conference call with my boss, he asked me, “Where are you? Why are there so many birds around?”

I had to quickly turn on my webcam to prove I was really at home in a home office, not in a wetland park or something.

Anyway, according to incomplete statistics, the cherry blossom battle mainly involves the following forces:

An army of pigeons, probably native to the area.

An army of parrots that seemed to appear out of nowhere. At first, there were only a few, but now there are probably forty or fifty.

A small group of crows, but extremely fierce fighters. I don’t know if they eat the cherries, but I always see them fighting.

And some other small birds with very beautiful calls.

In earlier years, pigeons held a dominant position. It was common to see them gradually fattening up from May to June, swaying precariously on the branches. Sometimes, four or five pigeons would perch on a single cherry tree.

I always dreamed of catching one and putting it in the oven. Pigeons that eat cherries must have very sweet meat, I guess 😀

The number of cherry trees was limited, so parrots had to compete with the pigeons for territory. They would circle and ambush the pigeons, and the pigeons would fight if they could win, and run if they couldn’t. No matter how the fighting went, the wounded would likely end up in the hands of crows.

In recent years, the situation has changed. With the parrot population constantly increasing, the pigeons are increasingly losing ground to the parrots.

Based on my persistent observation, parrots are likely much more intelligent than pigeons. When pigeons find food, they’ll just eat quietly by themselves, occasionally cooing a couple of times—probably a quiet “hmmm, this is delicious!”

Parrots are different; they’re quite cooperative. If one finds food, it will immediately call its companions. Its call is something like “coo-coo-coo-coo-cheep-cheep-cheep,” and the other parrots, hearing it, will respond from afar with “cheep-cheep-cheep-cheep.” It must be some kind of code, which I haven’t been able to decode yet.

Furthermore, parrots seem smarter than pigeons in their eating habits. Pigeons simply use both claws to grasp branches and then peck at them with their beaks, eating very slowly and often dropping half of what they’ve eaten.

Parrots, on the other hand, will use one claw to grasp a branch and the other to pick up a single cherry or a bunch of cherries, tilting their heads to eat. Imagine yourself tilting your head to eat a skewer of BBQ —it’s pretty much the same.

Also, the parrots like to chat while they eat, their cooing echoing all around. It seems their localization in France is much more successful than me.

Sometimes I stand under the tree and call out “Chirp chirp chirp,” and they’ll chirp back at me. Whether it’s a greeting or some kind of swearing, I don’t know. Anyway, it’s a back-and-forth.

Finally, a call back: I’m really tired of strawberries lately, waiting for cherries.