Let me tell you my encounter with your strange bird - and please don't laugh, as we say in French "being ridiculous never killed anyone !"...
Last saturday, I got the keys of the car I am renting here, waiting for my truck and trailer to be available for my trip. By the way, you DO have huge cars here in Texas. If you plan a trip to France for your next holidays, and plan to drive there, I can assure you will have the strangest feeling getting into what in France we call a "large car", which will be about half the size of the small SV I got here.
As soon as I got my keys, I rushed to the car and hit the road immediatly to get to the nearest... walmart . Yes, disappointing, I know. You would expect a French artist to rush to the nearest Museum or Art gallery, in a desperate need of paintings and beauty. But the fact is I was more feeling the desperate need for food - including the "French Onion Dip" I just love and, let me be clear about this, just DOES NOT exist in France- and drinks.
So I get on the road, marvel at both Texan highways size and Google Maps accuracy (can you imagine that 30 years ago, as s student in California, when I went on shopping trips like this, it was... just hoping not to get lost and be able to come back safely . A trip to find a Walmart could end up like a two days camping trip unplanned ... Now I just cannot get lost anymore, thanks for internet and smartphones... my life is so easier !) and end up, on a sunny morning , on the huge parking lot of a Walmart near Central Dallas.
I get out of my car, handle the remote, press the button
and
yup yup yup
strange noise
ALARM !
God, I forgot to ask the Budget desk. Is there an alarm ? how do you set it on ? off ?
I nervously press all the buttons, get a honk, a light flash, a beeepp...
yup yup yup
the alarm keeps yupping to my total despair
I spot a small bird watching me intently and I wonder for a minute if he s paid by the Walmart security service for he is looking at me really intensely. I feel totally guilty , handle my remote nervously, don t dare to watch people around and keep an eye on the long tailed gray bird who is still spying on me.
and then I realize the most strange thing :
It s not my car alarm,
The Yup Yup Yup sound comes from the bird.
Is it an electronic bird ?!
then suddenly light flows in my poor, French, jet lagged brain...
Mocking Bird ! Texas Symbol !
able to mimic about anything .
Crazy !!! this bird actually has learned to make the noise of a car alarm while living on the Walmart lot !
(hope at least he had learned the Ferrrari's alarm to impress his girl friends...)
So here I was , in this parking lot, with my remote in my hand and the sudden laugh I always feel bursting when confronted with the proof of animal cleverness.
For I swear, this bird was not only "imitating".
He was definitely making a joke on me, and checking on the effect he was having on me.
And this clever bird has obviously been very satisfied with my sudden burst of panic for not only he stood there during a good minute watching me, but when he realized I had figured out his trick, he left on a long and strident laugh that was a real compliment to the first guy who named this bird "a mocking bird".
I just LOVE birds,
and as the proud and persecuted companion (I dare not say owner) of a Grey African Parrot,
I know how clever and funny birds can be.
The French have a ridiculous expression : "bird brain", for somebody dumb and superficial.
It s the most ill found and untrue expression I know. Birds can be clever and fun, and my first encounter with a mocking bird here in Texas is certainly one I will never forget ...
But, tell me, I have suddenly a doubt.
Did my mocking bird imitate electronic sounds ?
Or did the electronic industry spy on the hundreds of sounds your mockings birds do and steal a few ?
After all many sounds have probably been invented by ... Texas instruments ? ???
I will pursue a thorough study of this topic in the following weeks, and keep you informed of my progress on this essential question :
(hope at least he had learned the Ferrrari's alarm to impress his girl friends...)
So here I was , in this parking lot, with my remote in my hand and the sudden laugh I always feel bursting when confronted with the proof of animal cleverness.
For I swear, this bird was not only "imitating".
He was definitely making a joke on me, and checking on the effect he was having on me.
And this clever bird has obviously been very satisfied with my sudden burst of panic for not only he stood there during a good minute watching me, but when he realized I had figured out his trick, he left on a long and strident laugh that was a real compliment to the first guy who named this bird "a mocking bird".
I just LOVE birds,
and as the proud and persecuted companion (I dare not say owner) of a Grey African Parrot,
I know how clever and funny birds can be.
The French have a ridiculous expression : "bird brain", for somebody dumb and superficial.
It s the most ill found and untrue expression I know. Birds can be clever and fun, and my first encounter with a mocking bird here in Texas is certainly one I will never forget ...
But, tell me, I have suddenly a doubt.
Did my mocking bird imitate electronic sounds ?
Or did the electronic industry spy on the hundreds of sounds your mockings birds do and steal a few ?
After all many sounds have probably been invented by ... Texas instruments ? ???
I will pursue a thorough study of this topic in the following weeks, and keep you informed of my progress on this essential question :
Who, from the mocking bird noise or the electronic sound, came first ?
No comments:
Post a Comment